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Rood vlees en uw gezondheid*
Uit een grote Amerikaanse studie blijkt dat het regelmatig eten van rood vlees en bewerkt vlees de kans op doodgaan aan kanker of hartziektes duidelijk vergroot. In de studie werden ruim 120.000 mannen en vrouwen tot 28 jaar gevolgd. In die tijd stierven bijna 24.000 mensen waarvan 9.500 aan kanker en 5.900 aan een hartziekte. Zij die dagelijks rood vlees eten hebben gemiddeld 13% meer kans dood te gaan, 18% meer aan hartziektes en 10% meer aan kanker. Voor bewerkt vlees zijn die percentages resp. 20%, 21% en 16%. Door een portie rood vlees te vervangen door bijv. vis geeft 7% minder kans, door gevogelte 14%, door volkoren granen 14% en door noten 19% minder kans op doodgaan. Eerdere studies laten al zien dat het regelmatig eten van vlees de kans op diverse kankersoorten sterk doet vergroten zo ook de kans op diabetes.
Study: Red meat raises risk of dying, risk higher with processed meats
Eating a diet heavy in red meat has been tied to added risk for cancer, diabetes and heart disease. It shouldn't be surprising then that a new study found eating red meat every day appears to increase a person's chances of dying from a chronic disease by 12 percent.
For the study, published online in the March 12 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, Harvard researchers analyzed data from two dietary studies that tracked nearly 37,700 men and 83,600 women for 28 years.
The researchers found overall that there were 23,900 deaths, including 5,900 from heart disease and nearly 9,500 from cancer. When the researchers looked closely at dietary habits, red meat took the cake when it came to raising death risk.
A daily serving of processed meat increased death risk by 20 percent, the study found, while a once-per-day serving of unprocessed red meat was tied to a 13 percent increase in overall mortality risk. According to the study authors, nearly 9 percent of deaths in men and 8 percent of deaths in women from the study could have been prevented if participants ate less than half a serving of red meat per day.
"We found that a higher intake of red meat was associated with a significantly elevated risk of total, CVD and cancer mortality, and this association was observed for unprocessed and processed red meat, with a relatively greater risk for processed red meat," the authors wrote in the study.
When it comes to red meat research, the findings are not in the carnivore's favor.
Previous research by study author Dr. An Pan, a nutrition researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, found eating red meat - particularly when its processed - raised a person's risk for type 2 diabetes by 19 percent. A January study found that for every 50 grams of processed meat a person eats per day - which can be as little as one sausage link - raised a person's risk for pancreatic cancer by 19 percent.
A 2010 study showed that people who ate the most red meat among study participants were 79 percent more likely to develop cancer of the stomach and esophagus. Another study that year found processed red meats were tied to a 30 percent increased risk for bladder cancer.
The bottom line?
"We should move to a more plant-based diet," study co-author Dr. Frank Hu, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, told HealthDay. "This can substantially reduce the risk of chronic disease and the risk of premature death."
In fact, the study found replacing red meat with healthier alternatives reduced a person's risk of dying. 
Replacing one serving of red meat with one serving of fish was tied to a 7 percent death risk reduction, with poultry the risk fell 14 percent, nuts 19 percent, legumes 10 percent, low-fat dairy products 10 percent or whole grains daily was associated with a 14 percent lower risk of dying.
Since meat is a big protein component of many Americans' diets, what can be done to reduce death risk? (Maart 2012)