A new observational study by a research team from Tufts University in Medford, U.S., found that people aged 65 and over, who eat red meat, have higher risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD).
For the study, the scientists analyzed data for almost 4,000 men and women over age 65 who participated in the National Institutes of Health’s long-term, observational Cardiovascular Health Study. The analysis showed that 1.1 servings of red meat per day increased the risk of ASCVD by 22%.
First author Dr. Meng Wang, a postdoctoral fellow at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, says: “Our findings are consistent with these new lines of evidence, and suggest that components in red meat like L-carnitine and heme iron (which has been associated with type 2 diabetes) may play a more important role in health than saturated fat, and need to be better studied.”