Red meat contains type of iron linked to diabetes risk

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Red meat contains type of iron linked to diabetes risk

People who ate the most foods high in heme iron — red meat and other animal products, mainly — had a 26% higher risk of Type 2 diabetes than those who ate the least, researchers said. Photo by Adobe Stock/HealthDay News

Red meat contains a type of iron that could increase a person’s risk of Type 2 diabetes, a new study warns.

People who ate the most foods high in heme iron — red meat and other animal products, mainly — had a 26% higher risk of Type 2 diabetes than those who ate the least, researchers reported Tuesday in the journal Nature Metabolism. Advertisement

In fact, heme iron accounted for more than half of the Type 2 diabetes risk associated with unprocessed red meat, researchers found.

But non-heme iron, which is found in plant-based foods, had no link at all with Type 2 diabetes, results show.

“This study underscores the importance of healthy dietary choices in diabetes prevention,” said researcher Frank Hu, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.

“Reducing heme iron intake, particularly from red meat, and adopting a more plant-based diet can be effective strategies in lowering diabetes risk,” Hu added in a Harvard news release.

Heme iron comes from hemoglobin, a blood protein that facilitates the transport of oxygen in red blood cells. It’s commonly found in meat, poultry and seafood, and is more easily absorbed by the body than non-heme iron. Advertisement

For the study, researchers assessed the link between iron intake and Type 2 diabetes using 36 years of dietary reports from more than 206,000 health professionals enrolled in two long-term research projects.

They also analyzed the blood of more than 37,500 people to figure out how iron might be increasing diabetes risk.

Heme iron was associated with a wide array of blood biomarkers associated with Type 2 diabetes, results showed.

The research team also identified a dozen blood metabolites that might play a role in the link between heme iron intake and Type 2 diabetes risk, researchers said.

These findings raise concerns about the addition of heme iron to plant-based meat alternatives to enhance their meaty flavor and appearance, the researchers said.

The Cleveland Clinic has more about dietary iron.

Red meat contains type of iron linked to diabetes risk

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