Cutting out the equivalent of around 10 slices of bacon a week could stop more than 350,000 of diabetes cases over 10 years in the US, researchers say.
It could also prevent tens of thousands of cases of cardiovascular disease and colorectal cancer.
A team of researchers from the University of Edinburgh and the University of North Carolina examined how cutting out processed meat and unprocessed red meat could impact on health, after developing a simulation tool.
There haven’t been many studies which look at the effects of eating a lot of processed meat on a number of health outcomes.
- Eating fake meat offers no clear benefit for heart health
- Eating more nuts and less processed meats during mid-age prolongs your life by 8 years
- Carnivore Diet: The All Meat Diet
There is also limited evidence around the impact of unprocessed red meat on chronic disease risk.
This study is the first to assess the impact of cutting out these type of meats, from between 5% and 100%, on a number of health outcomes – diabetes, cardiovascular disease, colorectal cancer and death.
Co-author Professor Lindsay Jaacks, from the University of Edinburgh, said: “Cutting consumption of meat has been recommended by national and international organisations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including the Climate Change Committee here in the UK and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or IPCC.
“Our research finds that these changes in diets could also have significant health benefits in the US, and so this is a clear win-win for people and planet.”
Reducing consumption of processed meat by 30% over 10 years could:
- Prevent more than 350,000 cases of diabetes
- Reduce cardiovascular disease cases by 92,500
- Reduce colorectal cancer cases by 53,300.
The most significant health benefits could be seen in white men with a yearly household income of between $25,000 and $55,000.
- Too much nitrite-cured meat increases cancer risk say scientists
- Cardiometabolic risk in children increased by high intake of ultra-processed foods
- Adolescents with low cardiorespiratory fitness at risk of not being able to work in adulthood
Using the simulator, researchers found that cutting down on both processed meat and unprocessed red meat by 30% led to 1,073,400 fewer diabetes cases, 382,400 fewer cardiovascular disease cases and 84,400 fewer colorectal cancer cases.
If people reduced their intake of unprocessed red meat by the equivalent of one quarter-pound beef burger a week, it would lead to around 732,000 fewer diabetes cases, 291,500 fewer cardiovascular disease cases and 32,200 fewer colorectal cancer cases.
