A bad day for meat?

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Julie G
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A bad day for meat?

Post by Julie G »

Hmmm, here's a new paper that basically backs up Gundry & Bredesen's approach. It suggests the TYPE of protein (meat vs. nuts) may make a huge difference when it comes to heart disease. You can read the press release here.

A few tidbits from the PR: A new study with a data set of 81,000 found that people who consumed large amounts of meat protein experienced a 60-percent increase in cardiovascular disease (CVD), while people who consumed large amounts of protein from nuts and seeds experienced a 40-percent reduction in CVD.
From Fraser, a study author, “While dietary fats are part of the story in affecting risk of cardiovascular disease, proteins may also have important and largely overlooked independent effects on risk,” Fraser said. He added that he and his colleagues have long suspected that including nuts and seeds in the diet protects against heart and vascular disease, while red meats increase risk.

Fraser added that nutritionists have traditionally looked toward what he termed “bad fats” in meats and “helpful fats” in nuts and seeds as causal agents. However, these new findings suggest more. “This new evidence suggests that the full picture probably also involves the biological effects of proteins in these foods,” he said.

Fraser says the team’s research differed in another significant way from previous investigations. While prior studies have examined differences between animal and plant proteins, this study did not stop at just two categories, but chose to specify meat protein and proteins from nuts and seeds along with other major dietary sources. “This research is suggesting there is more heterogeneity than just the binary categorization of plant protein or animal protein,” Fraser said.
Here's the paper. Full text can be found at SciHub for those who live in a jurisdiction where it's legal. I look forward to a read. I'm wondering about healthy user bias especially since it was conducted at Loma Linda University...

Patterns of plant and animal protein intake are strongly associated with cardiovascular mortality: the Adventist Health Study-2 cohort
https://academic.oup.com/ije/advance-ar ... m=fulltext
Abstract
Background
Current evidence suggests that plant and animal proteins are intimately associated with specific large nutrient clusters that may explain part of their complex relation with cardiovascular health. We aimed at evaluating the association between specific patterns of protein intake with cardiovascular mortality.
Methods
We selected 81 337 men and women from the Adventist Health Study-2. Diet was assessed between 2002 and 2007, by using a validated food frequency questionnaire. Dietary patterns based on the participants’ protein consumption were derived by factor analysis. Cox regression analysis was used to estimate multivariate-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) adjusted for sociodemographic and lifestyle factors and dietary components.
Results
There were 2276 cardiovascular deaths during a mean follow-up time of 9.4 years. The HRs for cardiovascular mortality were 1.61 [98.75% confidence interval (CI), 1.12 2.32; P-trend < 0.001] for the ‘Meat’ protein factor and 0.60 (98.75% CI, 0.42 0.86; P-trend < 0.001) for the ‘Nuts & Seeds’ protein factor (highest vs lowest quintile of factor scores). No significant associations were found for the ‘Grains’, ‘Processed Foods’ and ‘Legumes, Fruits & Vegetables’ protein factors. Additional adjustments for the participants’ vegetarian dietary pattern and nutrients related to cardiovascular disease outcomes did not change the results.
Conclusions
Associations between the ‘Meat’ and ‘Nuts & Seeds’ protein factors and cardiovascular outcomes were strong and could not be ascribed to other associated nutrients considered to be important for cardiovascular health. Healthy diets can be advocated based on protein sources, preferring low contributions of protein from meat and higher intakes of plant protein from nuts and seeds.
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Tincup
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Re: A bad day for meat?

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Julie G wrote:I'm wondering about healthy user bias especially since it was conducted at Loma Linda University..
I would say this is quite likely, since 7th Day culture is veg, 7th Day's who aren't veg may be less likely to pay attention to their health.
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Re: A bad day for meat?

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I also doubt that there was differentiation between mass produced, corn fed, caged animal meat and small farm, grass fed, free range, animal meat.

(this written by a non meat eater)
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SusanJ
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Re: A bad day for meat?

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Diet studies always make me wonder if they are overlooking other factors.

Is it the type of protein or the amount that is important here. If you look at red meat, for example, you get about 25 grams of protein per 3 ounce serving. If you look at walnuts, 3 ounces contains only about 13 grams.

Or the fiber content of the nuts? 3 ounces of walnuts would be pretty filling for me (about 3/4 cup with 6 grams of fiber) compared to 3 ounces of meat.

Because they are behind pay walls, I wonder what do they consider large amounts of either protein source?

And as far as bad fats in animal meat, I'm about to post a new, small study about stearic acid (in animal fat) and it's positive effects on mitochondrial health.
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