Does Eating Red Meat Increase The Risk Of Diabetes?

Does Eating Red Meat Increase the Risk of Diabetes?

No matter how often I write articles defending the place of red meat in a healthy diet, there are always people who get bent out of shape whenever a new study is published with a different twist on the same old “red meat is killing us” story.
Although I can’t say addressing these (often ridiculous) studies is the most exciting undertaking, I wanted to write about this one because it’s a prime example of the limitations of observational evidence, and what happens when you control for even the most simple confounding variables.
Does red meat really increase your risk of diabetes? Read this to find out!
The study in question is titled “Associations between red meat intake and biomarkers of inflammation and glucose metabolism in women,” and was conducted by Walter Willet and a group of other Harvard researchers. (1) Using data from the Nurse’s Health cohort, they identified a positive relationship between red meat intake and higher levels of plasma C-reactive protein (CRP), ferritin, fasting insulin, and Hb A1c, after adjusting for demographic, medical and lifestyle factors. CRP (and sometimes ferritin) are markers for inflammation, and elevated fasting insulin and hemoglobin A1c indicate impaired glucose metabolism.
Limitations of Observational Evidence
Right off the bat, there’s a glaring weakness in this study that has been largely glossed over by many media reports: all but one of these associations disappeared after adjusting for BMI. As the study authors mention, excess body fat is the biggest risk factor for type 2 diabetes, so it shouldn’t come as a su Continue reading

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High meat intake increases diabetes risk, study shows

A Singaporean population study has confirmed that a high intake of red meat and poultry can increase a person's risk of diabetes. Fish and shellfish, however, do not pose any risk, researchers say.
Recently, many studies have shown that plant-based diets, rather than diets that favor a high meat intake, are more beneficial to health. For instance, last month, Medical News Today reported on a study that linked vegetarian diets with lower cholesterol levels.
At the same time, many existing studies link meat consumption with a higher risk of developing diabetes.
New research from the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore confirms previous findings and adds new considerations as to why eating too much meat can predispose individuals to diabetes.
Prof. Woon-Puay Koh, a professor of clinical sciences at the Duke-NUS Medical School, and her colleagues evaluated the link between red meat, poultry, fish, and shellfish and type 2 diabetes, taking into account the impact of heme iron - which is iron content absorbed from meat - intake.
The researchers' findings were published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Red meat and poultry increase risk
The researchers analyzed data from the Singapore Chinese Health Study, involving 63,257 adults aged between 45 and 74. These were recruited between 1993 and 1998, and they were followed-up by means of two interviews: one in 1999 to 2004, and the other in 2006 to 2010.
It was found that people who had a higher dietary intake of red meat and poultry were at an increased risk of diabetes. Both fish and shellfish consumption, however, were not Continue reading

Eating Meat and Chicken Increases Your Risk Of Having Diabetes

Juicy chicken wings, butter like soft mutton, unforgettable flavor and a blend of spices. Who wouldn't be tempted? A speech on how meat loads you with all the extra calories and is harmful for the heart and body, just never seemed to deviate us to our way to a barbecue restaurant. It seems unfair that most food items that we cherish so dearly are not really the best for our health. Take butter for instance, or even meat. The flavour of a steak done in butter or even a hot toast slathered with a generous spread of the fat makes it taste so good. But then again, health experts would always advise you against indulging in too much of it. While the debate seem to continue on whether saturated fats - such as butter - is good or bad for health, one thing is certain that too much of it can definitely lead to heart diseases, causing blockage of arteries. Butter is said to contain 51% of saturated fats. Portion control is the health mantra. You can savour different kinds of food provided you have them in little portions. The times we live in today, with chemicals, additives and what not in our food, it is imperative that we are mindful of what we are eating.
(Health and Diet Tips for Women in Their 20s)
Since butter is a fat source, too much of it is bound to cause various ailments. According to a study done by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the US, they found that people who consumed 12 grams per day of butter had a two-fold higher risk of developing diabetes.
What Makes Butter Harmful?
While the debate on saturated fats being good or bad for health continues, it is i Continue reading

Diabulimia: the little-known eating disorder that's killing women with type 1 diabetes

Lisa Day, a 27-year old student nurse from North London, died after waiting nearly five hours for an ambulance in September 2015. Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as a teenager, she had purposely missed vital insulin jabs in order to lose weight on multiple occasions. But this time, without the crucial hormone to mop up excess sugar in her blood, she had developed life-threatening diabetic ketoacidosis, whereby toxic chemicals build up in the body.
Lisa's story is devastating, but sadly it is far from unique. It's estimated that in the UK, a third of diabetic women between the ages of 15 and 30 are regularly skipping their insulin injections in order to lose weight. Campaigners and doctors in the know call this eating disorder diabulimia, but it is, as yet, an unrecognised disease.
Unlike type 2 diabetes, often caused by lifestyle factors, where the body becomes less responsive to insulin, type 1 happens when the immune system accidentally destroys the cells in the pancreas which produce the hormone. This essential chemical ferries the energy from food around the body. But without it, the symptoms of diabetes appear: frequent urination, dehydration and utter exhaustion. The condition also often results in rapid weight loss.
"Ironically though, particularly if you are female, people start telling you how good you look, they ask you what your secret is and despite feeling half dead you start thinking 'Hey this is great! I'm losing weight!'. Then you find out that actually you aren't the luckiest girl in the world. You have a life threatening chronic illness and treating it invo Continue reading

New stem cell-based implant offers a ‘functional cure’ for Type 1 diabetes

We barely recovered from the excitement of editing human embryos in the U.S. but now the miracle of science has given us another reason to gape. Last week, two individuals with Type 1 diabetes received implants derived from embryonic stem cells in order to treat their chronic condition. This marks the first time that such an approach has been taken to curing diabetes.
The new implants, known as PEC-Direct from Viacyte, are expected to release inulin when patients’ blood sugar levels rise, thereby returning them to normal levels. The immune systems of Type 1 diabetes patients attack insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, resulting in abnormally low levels of the crucial hormone. While doctors and scientists have long searched for a way to replenish insulin in the human body (often with stem cells), they have been unsuccessful so far.
An implant, however, could be the answer. Scientists designed the new device to automatically release the hormone when it is needed, which allows stem cells to otherwise mature in the body while they are unneeded.
“If successful, this strategy could really change the way we treat Type 1 diabetes in the future,” Emily Burns of the charity Diabetes U.K said. This is actually comparable to another treatment method, in which pancreas cells from organ donors are introduced into patients’ bodies. However, given the lack of donors available, this is often not the most dependable of solutions.
Stem cells address this problem, as they can be produced in essentially infinite amounts.
“A limitless source of human insulin-producing cells would b Continue reading