Study: Red Meat May Not Increase Risk for Cardiovascular Disease
A study conducted by researchers in the Department of Nutrition Science at Purdue University found that the consumption of more than .5 servings of red meat did not impact blood pressure or cholesterol levels.
Researchers located 24 out of 945 studies on PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Scopus databases that included participants 19 years or older with a consumption of 1.25 ounces or 35 grams of red meat per day (≥0.5 or <0.5), and that reported ≥1cardiovascular disease risk factor.
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Postintervention values for blood total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, ratio of blood total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol, and systolic and diastolic blood pressures were assessed using an adjusted 2-factor nested ANOVA mixed-effects model procedure. The overall effect sizes of change values for cardiovascular risk factors were calculated and a repeated-measures ANOVA was used to assess preintervention and postintervention changes.
The meta-analysis showed that red meat did not impact lipid-lipoprotein profiles or blood pressure values postinervention. All subjects in the studies showed a decrease in blood total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, ratio of blood total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol, and diastolic blood pressure, but not systolic blood pressure.
Researchers concluded that red meat intake did not increase lipids, lipoproteins or blood pressures, confirming that the risk for cardiovascular disease did not increase in individuals consuming more than the daily amount of red meat
—Melissa Weiss
Reference:
O’Connor LE, Kim JE, Campbell WW. Total red meat intake of ≥0.5 servings/d does not negatively influence cardiovascular disease risk factors: a systematically searched meta-analysis of randomized controlled trails [published online November 23, 2016]. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. doi:10.3945/ajcn.116.142521.