Replacing red meat intake with other protein sources reduces T2DM risk

Substituting red meat consumption with other protein sources can significantly reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), suggests a study.

The authors examined the relationship between a decrease in red meat intake accompanied by an increase in other major dietary protein sources and risk of T2DM. They prospectively followed 27,634 males in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, 46,023 females in the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS), and 75,196 females in the NHS II.

A validated food frequency questionnaire was used to assess diet, which was also updated every 4 years. Food replacements were modeled using Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for T2DM risk factors. The authors calculated hazard ratios (HRs) and 95 percent confidence intervals (CIs) for the risk of T2DM associated with replacement of 1 daily serving of red meat with another protein source.

Overall, 8,763 incident T2DM cases were identified from 1990 to 2013 during 2,113,245 person-years of follow-up. Pooled analyses revealed the association between a decrease in total red meat intake during a 4-year period replaced with another common protein food and a reduced T2DM risk in the subsequent 4-year period.

The HR per 1 serving/d for poultry was 0.82 (95 percent CI, 0.75–0.90), for seafood 0.87 (95 percent CI, 0.77–0.98), for low-fat dairy 0.82 (95 percent CI, 0.78–0.86), for high-fat dairy 0.82 (95 percent CI, 0.77–0.86), for eggs 0.90 (95 percent CI, 0.81–0.99), for legumes 0.89 (95 percent CI, 0.82–0.98), for nuts 0.83 (95 percent CI, 0.78–0.89).

“The associations were present for both unprocessed and processed red meat, although stronger for the replacement of processed red meat,” the authors said.