Although a variety of studies seem to show that frequently eating red meat may increase your risk of heart problems, if you eat a paleo diet, you may be protected from this threat.
Medical researchers are still arguing about the effects of red meat on the body. One of the main areas of controversy surrounds its effect on cardiovascular health. Large population studies have suggested that people who indulge in red meat every day have more problems with their arteries and hearts.
But is it really the red meat that is to blame?
Well, consider the types of processed red meat many people eat but that are not included in the paleo diet: This includes processed items like hot dogs, luncheon meat, bacon and sausage.
Paleo dieters are encouraged to eat unprocessed meats – things like organic, grass-fed beef; organic pork; lamb; and free-range organic chickens. There’s a big difference in what happens to those meats before they reach your dinner plate and what is added to processed meats.
Heart difficulties and diabetes
A study at the Harvard School of Public Health shows that consuming processed meats can increase your risk of heart disease and diabetes. But the study did not find that people eating unprocessed red meat ran any kind of increased risk of problems.
The Harvard researchers reviewed and analyzed the results of about 20 studies that included more than 1,200,000 people from the United States and nine other countries in Europe, Australia and Asia.
In this research, unprocessed red meat included unprocessed meat from pork, lamb or beef but excluded chicken and other poultry. Processed meat included meats that were preserved by salting, curing, smoking or the addition of preservatives. This included salami, bacon, hot dogs, sausage and processed deli (luncheon) meats. The study did not consider the effects of vegetables or seafood.
The analysis demonstrated, on average, that every daily serving of 50 grams of processed meat (that’s about one or two slices of luncheon meat or a hot dog) increases your chances of heart disease by about 42 percent. It also lifts the risk of diabetes by 19 percent.
“Although most dietary guidelines recommend reducing meat consumption, prior individual studies have shown mixed results for relationships between meat consumption and cardiovascular diseases and diabetes,” says researcher Renata Micha. “Most prior studies also did not separately consider the health effects of eating unprocessed red versus processed meats.”
Health protection
When you eat a paleo diet, you also eat a large amount of organic fruits and vegetables – important sources of phytonutrients that protect your health with chemicals that boost the immune system. Chances are, the average hot dog eater is not consuming asparagus, broccoli and carrots with his hot dog. He’s probably having it on a white bread bun with ketchup and chips while washing it down with a beer or soft drink flavored with high fructose corn syrup – and all of those processed foods may be increasing his risk for heart disease and diabetes.
Obviously, a plain chunk of paleo grass-fed steak eaten with steamed spinach, bok choy and chard are not going to impact your cardiovascular system the same way as a hot dog with everything on it.
And just consider what’s added to processed meats in contrast to the unprocessed variety:
“When we looked at average nutrients in unprocessed red and processed meats eaten in the United States, we found that they contained similar average amounts of saturated fat and cholesterol. In contrast, processed meats contained, on average, 4 times more sodium and 50% more nitrate preservatives,” says Micha. “This suggests that differences in salt and preservatives, rather than fats, might explain the higher risk of heart disease and diabetes seen with processed meats, but not with unprocessed red meats.”
So the next time you hear about research that claims to show that red meat leads to heart problems, look closely to see exactly what kind of meat the study has examined. Not all meat is created equal when it comes to health effects.
