Sylvia Ley Part 1, Red Meats and Diabetes

In part 1 of this Exclusive Interview, Sylvia Ley talks with Diabetes in Control Publisher Steve Freed about red meats and diabetes, the difference between red meat and processed red meat, and the implications for consuming either.

Sylvia H Ley, PhD, RD, is a research scientist at Harvard University.

Transcript of this video segment:

Freed: This is Steve Freed. We’re here with Diabetes in Control. We’re at the 78th Scientific Sessions from the American Diabetes Association, and we’ve been interviewing people that have had presentations, that have interesting things to tell people, and to learn from medical professionals. So, today we have a special guest, Sylvia Ley, PhD RD. And she had a presentation on red meats and how that affects people with diabetes. So, we’ve heard about just about everything and how it affects diabetes. So, today I want to thank you for your time and maybe we can start off with a little bit about your presentation on why red meats are bad for people with diabetes. So, maybe you can just kind of go over some of the high points.

Ley: Okay. So, yesterday I was talking to my audience about how red meat intake has increased in the last couple of years, which is rather surprising because in the past 40 years before that red meat intake has been going down in the US population, while the alternative meat choices such as poultry has been increasing, but it really flipped in 2016 and we’re seeing more of people consuming red meat now. So, we’re asking this question again, is red meat good for us? And of course, the cancer population are saying red meat and especially processed red meat is  a carcinogen. So, that sort of brings us back to, what about diabetes? And in population-based studies, it shows that especially the processed red meat is associated with higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes and to some degree total red meat is also associated with a higher risk.

Freed: So, you mentioned processed red meat or processed meat and red meat, what is processed compared to red meat? I mean, what’s the difference?

Ley: So, unprocessed red meat would be fresh meat, beef, other types of animal meat from four-legged animals. Whereas, processed red meat, it would be sausages, bacons. And basically it’s processed to add to the taste, to improve the taste as well as to improve the preservation but in the process there are other products that’re being introduced. So, for example, salt and nitrate, and so on is introduced to make the meat more tasteful or make it last longer and so on, so that has potential implications.

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