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According to a new study people who eat the most protein coming from animal sources are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes. Those who took part in the study were not assigned to eat different amounts of protein at random. Instead, the study compared the diets of the people who developed diabetes to the diets of the people who were not diagnosed with the disease.
There are several studies which revealed that animal protein is linked to type 2 diabetes. Doctor Frank Hu from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston said that a higher intake of total protein, especially from animal source is often associated with a long term risk of developing diabetes. Doctor Hu is researching prevention of diabetes through lifestyle and diets. He also stated that animal protein that comes from processed and red meat increases the risk of diabetes.
For the new study that says animal protein is linked to type 2 diabetes, researchers examined data from adults in eight European countries over a 12 year span. The recent study gathered data regarding the diets of the participants, their physical activity, weight, height, waist circumference and then followed the participants to see who developed diabetes.
A team of researchers selected 11,000 of the people who developed diabetes and compared the data with that of 15,000 people who didn’t develop the disease. The adults ate about 90g of protein daily and those who ate more than this tended to eat more fiber and cholesterol than those with a lower intake of protein. It seemed that every additional 10 g of protein people consumed every day was linked to a 6% higher risk for developing diabetes.
Animal Protein Is Linked To Type 2 Diabetes – researchers say
The researchers divided the participants into five groups based on how much protein they ate and found those who ate around 111g per day had a 17% higher risk of developing diabetes than those who ate the least amount of animal protein, around 72 grams per day. More specifically the participants who ate the most animal protein, 78 g per day had a 22% risk of being diagnosed with diabetes than those who ate around 36g daily. The researchers discovered that those who ate the most protein got about 15% of their calories from processed meat, red meat, fish, poultry and dairy, which apparently is too much. Plant protein, on the other hand is not linked to diabetes, study shows.
