Health experts have urged him to outline a study that suggested that eating processed meat may be a risk factor for depression.
Research by scientists from the University of Leeds showed that consuming 25g of processed meat, equivalent to one rasher of a bag, was associated with a 44% increased risk of full-term dementia.
In contrast, eating some unprocessed red meat may protect against depression, researchers said. They found that eating 50g per day of unorganized red meat, such as beef, pork, or lard, was associated with a 19% lower risk for full-blown dementia.
The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that the APOE oty4 genotype increased dementia risk four to six times but did not significantly alter the associations between meat consumption and dementia risk.
UK Biobank data
The research was based on data from 493,888 participants between 40 and 69 enrolled in Biobank UK.
Among the participants, there were 2896 cases of dementia in 8 years later. More men than women were diagnosed with dementia in the study population.
These people were generally older, poorer economically, less educated, more likely to smoke, less physically active, more likely to have a history of stroke and depression, and more likely to have the APOE gene ε4 carry, the researchers said.
People with the highest consumption of all meats and processed meats were more likely to be men, less educated, smokers, fat or obese, and had fewer vegetables and fruits and higher levels of energy, protein and geir.
PhD student Huifeng Zhang, who led the research, said: “Our research contributes to the growing body of evidence linking the consumption of processed meat to an increased risk for a range of non-communicable diseases. . “
The authors concluded that more specific public health guidelines could be provided to differentiate between types of meat. However, they understood that further research would be needed to confirm their findings.
Experts urge caution
Commenting on the study to the Science Media Center, health experts and statisticians said the results should be interpreted with caution.
“It’s very important not to read too much into this study,” said Kevin McConway, emeritus professor of applied statistics at the Open University. “The problem is that people who eat different amounts of processed meat differ in many other ways in addition to their meat consumption.”
Dr. said. McConway: “The study cannot show that processed meat actually causes an increase in the risk of dementia, any more than it can show that eating untreated red meat can reduce the risk of dementia. The conclusions are interesting, but they certainly won’t establish anything. “
Professor Clive Ballard, vice-chancellor of the University of Exeter, agreed. “While this study will be important when we are in a position to combine the results of multiple studies, as the study is small for this type of work, we should certainly not go into too much detail about the results, “he said.” We should not assume from this research that one rasher of a bag per day increases your risk of dementia by 44% – it is simply impossible to prove that in a study like this. “
Susan Jebb, professor of diet and population health at Oxford University, said, “a 44% increase in a very small number of cases is a very small risk”.
Professor Paul Matthews, director of the UK Dementia Research Institute at Imperial College London, said: “Interventions to reduce the risk of disease need to be appropriately targeted to avoid more harm than benefit. premature diet recommendations change according to associations like these. alone. “
Robert Howard, an elderly professor of psychiatry at University College London, said: “As a doctor who works clinically with people with dementia and researches possible depression treatments. the data wouldn’t force me to skip my breakfast. “
Meat consumption and risk of event depression: a cohort study of 493,888 UK Biobank participants, Huifeng Zhang et al., American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqab028