Posted on 08/24/2024 2:46:26 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
Higher intake of heme iron, the type found in red meat and other animal products—as opposed to non-heme iron, found mostly in plant-based foods—was associated with a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D) in a new study.
The researchers assessed the link between iron and T2D using 36 years of dietary reports from 206,615 adults enrolled in the Nurses' Health Studies I and II and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study.
The researchers also analyzed the biological mechanisms underpinning heme iron's relationship to T2D among smaller subsets of the participants. They looked at 37,544 participants' plasma metabolic biomarkers, including those related to insulin levels, inflammation, and iron metabolism. They then looked at 9,024 participants' metabolomic profiles—plasma levels of small-molecule metabolites.
The study found a significant association between higher heme iron intake and T2D risk. Participants in the highest intake group had a 26% higher risk of developing T2D than those in the lowest intake group. In addition, the researchers found that heme iron accounted for more than half of the T2D risk associated with unprocessed red meat and a moderate proportion of the risk for several T2D-related dietary patterns. In line with previous studies, the researchers found no significant associations between intakes of non-heme iron from diet or supplements and risk of T2D.
The study also found that higher heme iron intake was associated with blood metabolic biomarkers associated with T2D. A higher heme iron intake was associated with higher levels of biomarkers such as C-peptide, triglycerides, C-reactive protein, leptin, and markers of iron overload, as well as lower levels of beneficial biomarkers like HDL cholesterol and adiponectin.
The researchers also identified a dozen blood metabolites—including L-valine, L-lysine, uric acid, and several lipid metabolites—that may play a role in the link between heme iron intake and TD2 risk.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
You are correct. It is Malarkey. Plant sources of iron are not well absorbed, nor do plants contain the necessary amount of iron per serving. As an example, you would need to eat, approx. 2lbs of spinach to receive the RDI of iron.
Sum Ting Wong Study.
This doesn’t mean a lot in that it does not study or try to take into account what other eating habits people who eat a lot of red meat might have that might be different from chicken eaters. More sugar, for instance. As tiny example the meat and potatoes folks I know put a lot of sugar in their coffee and eat a lot more chips of various sorts.
“Until the last 100 years, most everybody was dead by age 45.”
Not really. Average lifespan was brought down by heavy infant mortality.
“In the early 7th Century BC, the Greek poet Hesiod wrote that a man should marry “when you are not much less than 30, and not much more”. Meanwhile, ancient Rome’s ‘cursus honorum’ – the sequence of political offices that an ambitious young man would undertake – didn’t even allow a young man to stand for his first office, that of quaestor, until the age of 30 (under Emperor Augustus, this was later lowered to 25; Augustus himself died at 75). To be consul, you had to be 43 – eight years older than the US’s minimum age limit of 35 to hold a presidency.
In the 1st Century, Pliny devoted an entire chapter of The Natural History to people who lived longest. Among them he lists the consul M Valerius Corvinos (100 years), Cicero’s wife Terentia (103), a woman named Clodia (115 – and who had 15 children along the way), and the actress Lucceia who performed on stage at 100 years old....
...Back in 1994 a study looked at every man entered into the Oxford Classical Dictionary who lived in ancient Greece or Rome. Their ages of death were compared to men listed in the more recent Chambers Biographical Dictionary.
Of 397 ancients in total, 99 died violently by murder, suicide or in battle. Of the remaining 298, those born before 100BC lived to a median age of 72 years. Those born after 100BC lived to a median age of 66. (The authors speculate that the prevalence of dangerous lead plumbing may have led to this apparent shortening of life).
The median of those who died between 1850 and 1949? Seventy-one years old – just one year less than their pre-100BC cohort.”
Thanks. I knew infant mortality skewed the age downward, but not that much. That’s fascinating research.
It is another unfounded attack on meat.
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