The daily consumption of a 25 gram serving of processed meat (the equivalent of a slice of bacon) would increase the risk of developing a form of dementia of 44%, says one study.
We know that processed meats – such as hot dogs, ham, sausages, or canned meats and other meat-based sauces – are not not the best health allies. Previous work has in fact already suggested that diets high in these foods are linked to an increased risk of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancer.
There are also a few studies suggesting that a high meat diet may increase the risk of dementia. In a recent study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition , researchers from the Nutritional Epidemiology Group at the University of Leeds tried to separate the risk of possible dementia from different types of meat (processed or not).
For this work, the researchers relied on demographic data from the UK Biobank. This is an ongoing research project collecting health information in the UK. About half a million residents between the ages of 40 and 69 were involved in this study. All these volunteers had completed between 2006 and 2010 a questionnaire on their diet at the beginning of their registration, then during periodic surveys offered a few months later.
With this data, the researchers were then able to track the health outcomes of these participants. Of the sample, approximately 2,900 cases of dementia were diagnosed in the entire group during an average follow-up period of eight years. Focusing then on the diet of those concerned, the authors then pointed out that the risk of dementia had increased by 44% for each slice of 25 grams of processed meat consumed daily.
In contrast, no significant association was found between dementia risk and total meat consumption, or between dementia risk and daily consumption of unprocessed meat .
Naturally, these nutritional studies have some limitations. On the one hand, they cannot demonstrate a direct cause and effect relationship, only a correlation. On the other hand, these data are based on questionnaires. And between us, who can remember the content of their meal eaten 13 or 19 days ago, or even a month ago? Finally, the diet of someone at 40 or 50 can also change significantly between the time of enrollment and the time of their dementia diagnosis years or decades later.
Also, this study alone cannot provide clear and definitive conclusions. Therefore, further work will be needed in this direction. However, as mentioned above, this would not be the first study linking the consumption of processed meats to a deterioration in health.
