A new study suggests that eating just 10 slices of bacon a week could prevent more than 350,000 cases of diabetes in the United States over 10 years.
Research published in The Lancet Planetary Health Journalfound that a 30 percent reduction in processed meat intake among U.S. adults could reduce tens of thousands of cases of cardiovascular disease and colon cancer.
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A team from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Edinburgh has collaborated to develop a simulation tool to assess the health impacts of reducing intake of processed and unprocessed red meat.
Previous studies have identified links between high processed meat consumption and chronic disease, but few have assessed the broader health impacts, the researchers said.
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“Reducing meat consumption to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is recommended by national and international organisations, including the UK’s Committee on Climate Change and the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),” study author Lindsay Jacks, head of global health and nutrition at the University of Edinburgh, said in a statement.
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“Our research shows that these dietary changes could have significant health benefits in the United States, which is clearly a win-win for people and the planet.”
In this study, we leveraged data from a national health survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop microsimulations that represent a sample of the U.S. adult population.
The research team assessed how changes in meat consumption in the sample affected the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, colorectal cancer and mortality.
They found that reducing processed meat consumption by 30 percent could prevent more than 350,000 cases of diabetes, 92,500 cases of cardiovascular disease, and 53,300 cases of colorectal cancer over a 10-year period.
In this scenario, white men and people with annual household incomes between $25,000 and $55,000 would likely see the greatest health benefits.
Additionally, a 30 percent reduction in consumption of both unprocessed and processed meat in the simulations reduced diabetes cases by 1,073,400, cardiovascular disease cases by 382,400, and colorectal cancer cases by 84,400.
The report found that a simulated 30 percent reduction in unprocessed red meat intake alone — equivalent to eating roughly one quarter-pound beef burger per week — would have reduced diabetes cases by more than 732,000, as well as cardiovascular disease by 291,500 and colorectal cancer by 32,200.
The greater disease prevention benefit of reducing unprocessed red meat compared with processed meat may be due in part to the higher daily intake of unprocessed red meat (47 grams per day) compared with 29 grams per day of processed meat, according to the report.
However, because little is known about the effect of eating unprocessed red meat on chronic disease risk, the researchers warned that these estimates should be interpreted with caution and that more research is needed.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom, seeking common ground and finding connections.
