Do you love your bacon? Eating processed red meat can add to your dementia risk, suggests large study
Consuming processed red meat like hot dogs and bacon can raise dementia risk
Do you love your bacon? Then take note: a new study has suggested that eating processed food can add to dementia risk. The study is based on some 130,000 subjects whose eating habits were tracked by US researchers over 40 years.
What did the study find?
The study was done on 130,000 health workers including nurses over a period of 43 years. Their diet information was tracked every 2-4 years with questions like how much of bacons, hot dogs, sausages, salami and sandwich meat they had in this period, The Guardian said in a report.
The study, presented to an Alzheimer’s Association conference in the US recently, found that 11,000 participants developed dementia during the follow-up.
The Guardian, citing the research, said that two servings of processed red meat per week raised cognitive decline risk by 14 per cent in the study subjects, as opposed to three servings per month.
Also read:Frequent nose-picking leading cause of progressive dementia: Study - Science News
"By studying people over a long period of time, we found that eating processed red meat could be a significant risk factor for dementia,” said lead author Dr Yuhan Li, an assistant professor at the Brigham and Women’s hospital in Boston.
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Li, who conducted the study at the Harvard TH Chan school of public health in Boston recommended that dietary guidelines should include recommendations to promote brain health.
How to reduce risk of dementia if you love processed red meat
According to the study, risk of dementia can be reduced by a good 23 per cent if one replaces one daily serving of processed red meat with nuts, beans or tofu, The Guardian report said. The risk can also be reduced if processed red meat is consumed along with nuts, beans or tofu.
Processed red meat had already been linked to risks of cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
What is dementia?
The Alzheimers' Association defines dementia as"a general term forloss of memory, language, problem-solving and other thinking abilities that are severeenough to interfere with daily life." It is not a specific disease but a set of debilitating conditions involving cognitive decline, often associated with age.
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According to World Health Organization,more than 55 million people have dementia worldwide. Every year, there are nearly 10 million new cases, as per the UN health agency.
There will be an estimated 153 million people living with dementia by 2050, a three-fold rise from current levels.
(With inputs from agencies)
