Regular red meat consumption linked to ischemic heart disease
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Key takeaways:
- Every weekly serving increase in processed or unprocessed red meat conferred higher risk for ischemic heart disease.
- Metabolomic signatures appear to link red meat intake to lipid and lipoprotein metabolism.
Increased consumption of red meat — processed or not — was associated with future risk for ischemic heart disease, according to a large study using data from the UK Biobank.
In addition, researchers identified metabolomic signatures that may link red meat intake to lipid and lipoprotein metabolism, according to findings published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
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“The evidence is equivocal on the association between meat consumption and ischemic heart disease risk. To what extent the variation of individuals’ metabolic responses to the same diet may account for this association is not fully understood,” Xue Dong, MD, of the department of epidemiology and biostatistics in the School of Public Health at Peking University in Beijing, and colleagues wrote. “We aim to identify metabolomic signatures characterizing consumption of unprocessed red meat and processed meat and whether such signatures are associated with ischemic heart disease risk.”
Using data from the UK Biobank, Dong and colleagues identified metabolomic signatures that characterized metabolic response to processed and unprocessed red meat within a cohort of 92,246 individuals (mean age, 56.1 years; 55.1% women).
Weekly red meat intake was assessed using a dietary questionnaire.
The researchers assessed plasma metabolome using high-throughput nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and constructed metabolomic signatures consisting of 157 metabolites for unprocessed red meat (r = 0.223) and 142 for processed meat (r = 0.329).
Dong and colleagues then conducted a genome-wide association analysis and 1-sample Mendelian randomization to identify any relationship between red meat-associated metabolites and risk for ischemic heart disease.
During a median follow-up of 8.74 years, 3,059 ischemic heart disease events occurred.
In a fully adjusted model, for each weekly serving equivalent increase in red meat-associated metabolomic signatures, researchers observed increased risk for incident ischemic heart disease events (HR for unprocessed red meat = 1.11; 95% CI, 1.06-1.16; HR for processed red meat = 1.16; 95% CI, 1.11-1.21; P for both < .001).
Overall, Dong and colleagues identified 45 loci associated with lipid and lipoprotein metabolism for unprocessed red meat-related signatures and four loci for processed red meat-related signatures (P < .0001).
“In the large prospective cohort study, we identify metabolomic signatures that measure metabolic response to unprocessed red meat and processed meat intakes,” the researchers wrote. “Our observational and genetic evidence imply that these signatures are associated with an increased risk of ischemic heart disease. Further research into metabolomic signatures and biological pathways of the constituting metabolites may provide novel understanding on biological mechanisms through which meat consumption impacts heart disease.”
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