Eating meat as part of our regular diet could improve overall health and lead to a longer life, a new study by biomedical researchers at the University of Adelaide in Australia, as well as in Poland, Italy and Switzerland, has found. examined meat consumption in more than 170 countries.
Drawing on ecological data published by United Nations agencies, their conclusion was clear: a meat-based diet was associated with longer life expectancy, independent of total calorie intake, economic wealth, urban advantage, and obesity. .
“It is estimated that between 20 and 30% of human life expectancy is determined by genetic factors and between 70 and 80% by environmental factors,” explains Wenpeng You, a researcher at the University of Adelaide and the Research Center FAPAB, in their work published in the International Journal of General Medicine.
“Over the last 50 years, although the associations between meat consumption and disease are circumstantial and controversial to some extent, they have fueled the spread of vegetarianism and veganism, based on the assumption that meatless diets offer more. health benefits than diets that include meat .”
The scientists explained that previous studies from developed countries have associated a vegan or vegetarian diet with better health. However, the study’s nutritionist, Yanfei Ge, said this is because plant-based substitutes are purchased that offer the same nutrients as meat.
“Our final message of the document is that the consumption of meat is beneficial for human health as long as it is consumed in moderation and that the meat industry is carried out in an ethical manner,” the researchers specify.
Conflicting studies
If, on the one hand, this recent research bets on moderate meat consumption, other research with almost half a million British adults has found that low-meat or meat-free diets are associated with a lower risk of cancer, even for cancers outside the digestive system, going against the benefits of increased life expectancy put forward by the Australian study.
Although this other work could not prove causality in its conclusions , the results held up regardless of whether or not a number of demographic and risk factors were taken into account. 12% of the sample developed cancer during the 11-year study follow-up of 472,377 British adults who reported the frequency of their meat and fish consumption.
52% of the sample claimed to eat meat five times a week or more; 44% ate meat, but less frequently. 2% ate no meat and another 2% ate fish but no other animals. Vegetarians and vegans had a 14% lower cancer rate (equivalent to a 10.3% cancer risk over the period).
Vegetarian or vegan men had 31% fewer prostate cancers than those who regularly ate meat. Even those who ate fish but no other meats had a 20% lower risk of this type of cancer.
Be that as it may, the authors acknowledge that studies like this cannot prove causality. However, they controlled for obvious factors such as education, ethnicity, and cigarette and alcohol use, and found only marginal differences.
Referencia: W. You et al. 2022. Total Meat Intake is Associated with Life Expectancy: A Cross-Sectional Data Analysis of 175 Contemporary Populations. International Journal of General Medicine 15: 1833-1851; doi: 10.2147/IJGM.S333004
Watling, C.Z., Schmidt, J.A., Dunneram, Y. et al. Risk of cancer in regular and low meat-eaters, fish-eaters, and vegetarians: a prospective analysis of UK Biobank participants. BMC Med 20, 73 (2022). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02256-w
