`Study: Eating Some Lean Red Meat With MedDiet May Lower Risk of Heart Disease - Olive Oil Times
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Study: Eating Some Lean Red Meat With MedDiet May Lower Risk of Heart Disease

By Ephantus Mukundi
Jun. 8, 2021 10:18 UTC

For years, clin­i­cal research has linked con­sump­tion of red meat to health prob­lems includ­ing car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­eases due to its high con­tent of LDL cho­les­terol.

However, a recent study pub­lished in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that eat­ing mod­er­ate amounts of lean beef with a Mediterranean diet is healthy and has the poten­tial of low­er­ing the risk of con­tract­ing heart dis­ease.

This study high­lights the impor­tance of includ­ing lean beef in a Mediterranean dietary pat­tern that can yield heart-healthy ben­e­fits.- David J. Baer , researcher, United States Department of Agriculture

“When you cre­ate a healthy diet built on fruits, veg­eta­bles and other plant-based foods, it leaves room for mod­er­ate amounts of other foods like lean beef,” said Jennifer Fleming, assis­tant teach­ing pro­fes­sor of nutri­tion at Pennsylvania State University and the study’s prin­ci­pal inves­ti­ga­tor.

“There are still impor­tant nutri­ents in beef that you can ben­e­fit from by eat­ing lean cuts like the loin or round, or 93 per­cent lean ground beef,” she added.

See Also:Health News

Though red meat con­sump­tion has been linked to an increased risk of car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease, it has always been dif­fi­cult to prove whether its con­sump­tion directly con­tributes to the con­di­tion or not. This is because other lifestyle and dietary behav­iors go hand in hand with the con­sump­tion of red meat.

In addi­tion, the def­i­n­i­tion of red meat is quite broad as both processed and unprocessed meats are gen­er­ally clas­si­fied as red meats.

Typically, processed meat has a dif­fer­ent nutri­tional pro­file than fresh meat due to addi­tives and preser­v­a­tives, such as sodium. This could explain why red meat is often reported as highly unhealthy.

“Our results demon­strate that the con­sump­tion of a healthy Mediterranean-style dietary pat­tern with dif­fer­ent amounts of lean beef improves lipids and lipopro­teins when com­pared with a typ­i­cal American dietary pat­tern con­tain­ing lean beef,” the researchers wrote in the study.

“These find­ings are con­sis­tent with pre­vi­ous research show­ing that con­sum­ing lean, unprocessed red meat as part of a DASH-style diet does not atten­u­ate the favor­able effects on lipids and lipopro­teins,” they added. ​“Similar find­ings also were observed with the inclu­sion of lean beef and pork as part of a Mediterranean-style diet com­pared with a Mediterranean diet con­tain­ing beef or pork.”

The study involved 59 peo­ple, with every par­tic­i­pant con­sum­ing Mediterranean and American diets for four weeks each. There was a one-week break between the diets. Blood sam­ples were drawn at the start and end of each diet.

After ana­lyz­ing the data, the researchers found that all the par­tic­i­pants had lower LDL cho­les­terol when con­sum­ing the Mediterranean diet than when they were on the American diet.

“This study high­lights the impor­tance of includ­ing lean beef in a Mediterranean dietary pat­tern that can yield heart-healthy ben­e­fits,” con­cluded David J. Baer, a researcher at the United States Department of Agriculture’s research ser­vice and study co-prin­ci­pal inves­ti­ga­tor.

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