Do Hot Dogs Cause Diabetes?

August 16th, 2011 by Ryan Luce 1 Comment

by Michael O’Leary

If you’re heading to the state fair this summer, you ought to skip the brats, dogs and sausages, and head to the dairy barn according to the largest study to date to look at processed and unprocessed red meats and diabetes risk.

A new Harvard study has found that red meat intake increases the risk of type 2 diabetes by 19 percent, and processed red meat has been linked to a whopping 51 percent increase in risk. (Link to published site)

The good news is, the researchers also found that substituting healthier proteins for red meat produces significant health benefits, including lowering the risk of type 2 diabetes. Substituting one serving of low-fat dairy for red meat leads to a 17 percent lower risk of developing diabetes. Similarly, choosing nuts instead of red meat reduced the type 2 diabetes risk 21 percent and eating whole grains instead of red meat reduced the risk 23 percent.

The study published this week in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, pooled data from three large population studies previously conducted by Harvard University School of Public Health involving more than 442,101 doctors and nurses—28,228 of whom eventually developed type 2 diabetes. The Physicians’ Health Study and two Nurses’ Health studies tracked health, diet and other lifestyle factors of healthcare professionals for as long as 28 years.

In an interview with The Harvard Crimson student newspaper, the study’s lead author An Pan of the Department of Nutrition and Epidemiology suggested that processed meats be eliminated from our diets.

“We should eradicate [processed meats] from our diets,” said An Pan, citing the high level of sodium and nitrates in unprocessed meat that can increase risk of insulin resistance. “Unprocessed, people should be allowed to have one or two servings per week. That’s fine.”

While previous studies have linked eating processed red meats to increasing the risk of developing type 2 diabetes the risks from unprocessed meats have been less clear. In addition, this study is among the first to estimate the risk reduction associated with substituting healthier protein choices for red meat.

The senior author of the study, Frank Hu told the Boston Globe that the biology linking the red meats with diabetes risk shows that red meat can increase inflammatory chemicals, which can destroy insulin-producing beta cells. The nitrates in processed meats may also be toxic to beta cells, which could explain why processed meats contributed even more to risk.

Based on their study results, the researchers advise minimizing consumption of hot dogs, bacon, sausage, and deli meats, which generally have high levels of sodium and nitrites, and reduce consumption of unprocessed red meat.