Excessive Red Meat Consumption May Shorten Life

Does everybody want to live longer? Trade a few of the Red Meat in your diet for fish, whole grains, nuts, and other healthier protein sources. Harvard researchers say that the risk of dying at an early age from heart disease, cancer, or any other cause goes up in step with red-meat consumption.

Eating excessive red meat, which is high in saturated fat and cholesterol, has long been seen as harmful, particularly for the heart. Experts monitor the diets of over 121,000 middle-aged men and women for up to 28 years. Roughly 20 percent of the participants died during that period.

On average, each extra serving of Red Meat the participants ate per day was associated with a 13 percent probabilities risk of dying during the study. Processed red meat products like; bacon, hot dogs, and salami appeared to be even more unsafe: Each extra daily serving was associated with a 20 percent higher risk of dying.

Based on these findings, the experts calculate that substituting one daily serving of meat with fish, nuts, poultry,  legumes, whole grains, or low-fat dairy products would decrease the risk of dying in this stage of life by 7 percent to 19 percent.

The message conveys is to try to decrease the red meat consumption to less than 2 to 3 servings per week. That’s doesn’t mean everyone to be a vegetarian. That keeping away from processed red meat altogether may be a fine idea. It’s better to go with unprocessed products and plant-based foods.