A new epidemiological study published in The BMJ explores the association between eating red meat and the risk of death, specifically how risk of death can be lessened through dietary change—decreasing red meat consumption while increasing intake of healthier animal and plant-based foods. This correlates with OFAS research in rodents demonstrating that a sulfur amino acid-restricted (SAAR) diet can increase lifespan and delay onset of age-related diseases. In general, meat and other animal-based food sources have high SAA while plant-based food sources such as vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and fruits have low SAA.
The study looked to produce evidence backing previous studies showing “that higher red meat consumption, especially processed red meat, is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer, including colorectal cancer, and mortality.” Analyzing data from a cohort of 81,469 US health professionals (male and female) from a 16-year period, this study found 1) increases in red meat consumption, especially processed meat, are associated with a higher risk of death and 2) decreases in red meat consumption and simultaneous increases in healthy alternative food choices over time are associated with a lower mortality risk, further supporting the health benefits of replacing red and processed meat with healthy protein sources, whole grains, or vegetables.
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Zheng Yan, Li Yanping, Satija Ambika, Pan An, Sotos Prieto Mercedes, Rimm Eric et al. Association of changes in red meat consumption with total and cause specific mortality among US women and men: two prospective cohort studiesBMJ 2019; 365 :l2110
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