Study: Eating 'small amounts' of red and processed meats increases risk of death

If your meal is not complete without some red or processed meats, a new study may urge you to re-think your diet.

A new study has revealed that eating ‘small amounts’ of such meats increase your risk of death from all causes.

Saeed Mastour Alshahrani, who led the study from Loma Linda University, said: “A question about the effect of lower levels of intakes compared to no-meat eating remained unanswered.

“We wanted to take a closer look at the association of low intakes of red and processed meat with all-cause, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer mortality compared to those who didn't eat meat at all.”

In the study, the researchers analysed the diets and deaths of over 7,900 people over an 11-year period.

Of those people who ate meat, 90 per cent of them only ate about two ounces or less of red meat per day.

Over the 11 years, nearly 2,600 reported deaths were due to heart disease, and over 1,800 were cancer deaths.

While eating just processed meats, such as ham and salami, was not linked to an increased risk of death, eating these meats alongside red meat was linked to a higher risk of death from any cause.

The team hopes their findings will encourage people to reduce the amount of meat in their diets.

Dr. Micahel Orlich, a co-author of the study, said: “Our findings give additional weight to the evidence already suggesting that eating red and processed meat may negatively impact health and lifespan.”