People’s love for processed meat may return to bite them in the long run, new research in the UK suggests. The study found a higher link consumption of processed meat and higher rates of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. At the same time, it also found a possible link between the consumption of raw meat and a lower risk of dementia.
Processed meat, such as bacon, jerky and hot dogs, do not have exactly reputation for being healthy in the first place. Other research has suggested that diets rich in these foods are linked to chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers. Some studies even have sharp to a link between processed meat and the increased risk of neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as episodes of bipolar depression.
Were mixed evidence that a diet rich in meat it could increase a person’s risk of dementia in recent years. But according to the authors of this new study, published On Monday, in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, less work was done to separate the possible risk of dementia from different types of meat (processed versus not) and whether genetics can play a role in this risk.
The study was based on data from the UK population Biobank, an ongoing research project that collected health and genetic information from around half a million residents, AGES 40 la 69, between 2006 and 2010. As part of the project, volunteers completed a questionnaire about them diet at the beginning of their enrollment and in regular online surveys up to 16 months later. Because of the UK national health system, the researchers were then able to track the health outcomes of these participants, including whether they developed or died from dementia.
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Approximately 2,900 cases of dementia were diagnosed in the whole group over an average period of eight years.period above. And when researchers tried to account for people’s diets, they found a clear association between processed meat and the risk of dementia, but did not see the correlation when it came. other types of meat.
For example, the associated risk of dementia increased by 44% for every 25 grams of processed meat consumed daily. But no significant link was found between the risk of dementia and total meat consumption or between the risk of dementia and a person’s daily intake of chickens. Meanwhile, the associated risk of dementia decreased slightly for those who regularly ate unprocessed red meat (cooked beef, veal, pork, etc.).). The risk of dementia was increased for those who had the APOE ε4 genetic variation, as expected, but this risk was not affected by meat consumption..
Our findings suggest that eating processed meat may increase the risk of incidental dementia, and unprocessed red meat intake may be associated with lower risks, the authors wrote.
Of course, nutritional studies like this have their limitations. For example, I can’t show a direct cause-and-effect relationship between two things, just a correlation. Studying people’s diets is generally difficult, because we are not the best at remembering what and how much of any given food we consume regularly. And, of course, a person’s diet at age 40 or 50 could still change significantly between then and the time dementia is diagnosed years or decades later.
Any study should not be seen as the final verdict on a subject. More research will need to be done to rule out the potential effects of a rich dietn processed meat with the risk of dementia and how they can cause these diets. That being said, as mentioned earlier, this would not be the first study to link processed meat to deteriorating health. So, while the specifics have yet to be worked out, it is likely that in many of our interests we will be reduced bacon or sausages anyway.
“Globally, the prevalence of dementia is rising, and diet, as a modifiable factor, could play a role,” said lead author Huifeng Zhang, a doctoral student at the University of Leeds School of Food and Nutrition. freed by the University of Great Britain. “Our research adds to the growing body of evidence linking the consumption of processed meat to the increased risk of a range of noncommunicable diseases.”