Does eating meat increase your risk of cardiovascular disease?

Eating too much red meat has been linked to all kinds of terrifying health risks but a new study from a group of international researchers has discovered eating white meat might just be a significant risk factor worldwide for developing cardiovascular disease. 

The study’s authors noted that eating red meat has been typically associated with developing cardiovascular diseases but they wanted to explore the role all meat played in world health by looking at how the consumption of both red and white meats affected human health. 

Interestingly, previous research has shown that while saturated fat content in red meat could significantly increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease according to two 2017 studies, little is known about whether or not white meat has the same effect. 

The researchers also noted that a large majority of the world’s population consumes a combination of red and white meats in their diet and the separation of each in previous studies might have led to a bias where white meat has now become widely recommended to the public. 

Using data published by the United Nations, researchers were able to look at the health, demographic, and economic status of 217 countries that would serve as the researchers baseline for their investigation into how total meat consumption figured into cardiovascular disease. 

The Food and Agriculture Organization Corporate Statistical Database was used to obtain data on the total amount of meat supplied to individuals in 2017, and it also gave the researchers a clear definition of all the red and white meat eaten in their population. 

Red meats included beef, veal, buffalo, pig, mutton, lamb, goat, and horse, while white meat included the flesh from chicken, goose, duck, turkey, rabbit, game, and offal. 

Rates at which regional and global incidences of cardiovascular disease for 2017 were sourced from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which the study's authors said was an “independent and reputable research institute focusing on… global health.”

A variety of independent variables including one's socioeconomic status, whether or not a group was urbanized, and the rate of obesity were all factored into the analysis of each country or region the researchers studied, and they made a few tough discoveries.  

Globally, the researchers found that the consumption of both red and white meat in diets was strongly correlated to the incidences of cardiovascular disease and the relationship remained significant across obesity, urbanization, and socioeconomic status. 

Interestingly, the researchers also found that total meat consumption and incidences of cardiovascular disease were different depending on the country but found a significant trend that might surprise you. 

Developing countries were more likely to suffer from higher incidences of cardiovascular disease based on their total meat consumption of various developed countries, a finding which at first glance might seem backward based on popular notions of meat in society. 

The researchers noted in their findings that developing countries suffered more incidences of cardiovascular disease than developed countries based on their meat consumption and said the phenomenon was one that deserved more study in the future. 

This study matters because it could upend everything we know about what it means to eat a healthy diet. The current popular conception is that red meat is the culprit of most diets in developed countries but it may be that all types of meat should be cut back on. 

“It is worth analyzing the underlying reason for the differences between red and white meat consumption and their correlation to the adverse effects of [cardiovascular disease], the study’s authors commented in the discussion section of their research paper. 

“As the other meat subgroup, white meat represents a major portion of the human diet,” the researchers added, and for that reason alone we probably should be looking at the effects that white meat can have on our health.