When it comes to dangerous diseases, heart disease is one of the first, and it leads to numerous deaths every year. Scientists are still investigating the causes for this disease and a recent study discovered something quite worrisome.
According to the latest research, there is a link between heart disease risk and eating more red meat. This theory was published in a German study that appeared in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
What does red meat do?
While researchers managed to determine the fact that there is a connection between these two, they were not able to find out how red meat can cause heart disease. However, a theory seems to suggest that the iron in red meat is the one to blame, as it also increases the iron levels in the blood, possibly leading to heart disease.
The study
Researchers monitored 25,000 male and female volunteers since the mid-1990s. They were all declared healthy at the beginning of the study. They started by offering blood samples and details about their lifestyle, including information about their diet.
513 members survived a stroke, 381 died due to heart disease and 555 others suffered a heart attack. Researchers also analyzed some other participants. They focused on the dietary habits and they found out how much red meat they all used to eat.
Ferritin is a protein that is used to store iron in the body, and researchers discovered that participants who ate more red meat had higher ferritin levels. They also discovered that all the group members who suffered from death due to heart disease, strokes or heart attacks ate more red meat than the others.
The participants who suffered from heart disease also had high blood pressure, higher body mass, and were more likely to smoke than the others. The levels of education were also lower compared to the rest.
