Red Meat Intake and the Risk of Cardiovascular Diseases: A Prospective Cohort Study in the Million Veteran Program.
J Nutr
; 154(3): 886-895, 2024 03.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38163586
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Red meat consumption was associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in prospective cohort studies and a profile of biomarkers favoring high CVD risk in short-term controlled trials. However, several recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses concluded with no or weak evidence for limiting red meat intake.OBJECTIVES:
To prospectively examine the associations between red meat intake and incident CVD in an ongoing cohort study with diverse socioeconomic and racial or ethnic backgrounds.METHODS:
Our study included 148,506 participants [17,804 female (12.0%)] who were free of cancer, diabetes, and CVD at baseline from the Million Veteran Program. A food frequency questionnaire measured red meat intakes at baseline. Nonfatal myocardial infarction and acute ischemic stroke were identified through a high-throughput phenotyping algorithm, and fatal CVD events were identified by searching the National Death Index.RESULTS:
Comparing the extreme categories of intake, the multivariate-adjusted relative risks of CVD was 1.18 (95% CI 1.01, 1.38; P-trend < 0.0001) for total red meat, 1.14 (95% CI 0.96, 1.36; P-trend = 0.01) for unprocessed red meat, and 1.29 (95% CI 1.04, 1.60; P-trend = 0.003) for processed red meat. We observed a more pronounced positive association between red meat intake and CVD in African American participants than in White participants (P-interaction = 0.01). Replacing 0.5 servings/d of red meat with 0.5 servings/d of nuts, whole grains, and skimmed milk was associated with 14% (RR 0.86; 95% CI 0.83, 0.90), 7% (RR 0.93; 95% CI 0.89, 0.96), and 4% (RR 0.96; 95% CI 0.94, 0.99) lower risks of CVD, respectively.CONCLUSIONS:
Red meat consumption is associated with an increased risk of CVD. Our findings support lowering red meat intake and replacing red meat with plant-based protein sources or low-fat dairy foods as a key dietary recommendation for the prevention of CVD.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Veterans
/
Cardiovascular Diseases
/
Red Meat
/
Ischemic Stroke
Type of study:
Etiology_studies
/
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
J Nutr
Year:
2024
Type:
Article