Red Meat Consumption On Disease Risks And GHG

This study examines the effect of red and processed meat (RPM) consumption on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and levels of disease among adults in the U.K. The researchers divided people who eat red and processed meat into five groups depending on how much they consume. Those how ate the least were significantly less likely to develop a number of diseases and had lower levels of GHG emissions tied to their food consumption than those who ate the most. The authors estimate that if the U.K. population reduced red and processed meat consumption they would “reduce incidence of coronary heart disease, diabetes mellitus and colorectal cancer, by 3%–12%” and GHG emissions could be reduced by 28 million tonnes of CO2 annually.

Article Summary:

Article focus

• “Consumption of RPM is a leading contributor to GHG emissions.”
• “High intakes of RPMs increase the risks of several leading chronic diseases.”
• “This research identifies a low RPM dietary pattern that is already followed by a substantial fraction of the UK population and estimates health and environmental benefits that would result from its general adoption.”

Key messages

• “Habitual RPM intakes are 2.5 times higher in the top compared with the bottom fifth of the UK consumers.”
• “Sustained dietary intakes at a counterfactual reduced level in the UK population would materially reduce incidence of coronary heart disease, diabetes mellitus and colorectal cancer, by 3%–12%.”
• “The predicted reduction in UK food- and drink-associated GHG emissions would equate to almost 28 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent/year across the population.”

Strengths and limitations of this study

• “This research uses a food-based approach, taking intake-risk associations from meta-analyses rather than assuming the mechanisms by which the foods influence disease risk.”
• “The dietary data were collected a decade ago; however, the headline results from a more recent national dietary survey reveal that intakes of all meat categories were broadly similar, although slightly higher in 2008/2009 than in 2000/2001.”