Processed meat may be linked to increased risk of heart disease, diabetes

Moral of the story: Processed meat may the real culprit and unprocessed red meat may be less unhealthy than previously thought. maybe.

Source: AMA Morning Rounds 5/18/2010

Processed meat may be linked to increased risk of heart disease, diabetes.

The Wall Street Journal (5/18, Winslow) reports that processed meat may be linked to increased risk of heart disease and diabetes, according to a study published online in the journal Circulation.

        The Boston Globe (5/17, Cooney) "White Coat Notes" blog reported that investigators looked at data from "20 studies involving more than 1.2 million participants from 10 countries who were followed for up to 18 years." After "pooling the study results, the researchers found that eating unprocessed red meat was not associated with heart disease or diabetes." However, "people who ate at least one serving a day of processed red meat -- one hot dog or two deli slices -- had a 42 percent higher risk of heart disease and a 19 percent higher risk of diabetes than people who did not eat processed red meat."