Processed meats: It's not just our hearts. Now it's dementia, too.
It's not just our hearts. New research indicates eating processed red meats – bacon, ham, sausage, the list goes on – just twice a week increases the risk of dementia by 14%
People who regularly eat processed red meat—like bacon, hot dogs, sausage, kielbasa, salami, and bologna—may be at higher risk of developing dementia as they age according to a new study. “Regular” in this case means just twice a week.
This is a large, longitudinal study…meaning it’s more reliable than many. The study examined the relationship between diet and dementia risk, tracking 130,000-plus people for up to 43 years. Over time, more than 8% of the participants developed dementia. In the study, dementia risk rose by 14% for participants who ate roughly two servings of red meat a week as compared with those who ate fewer than three servings per month.
There’s good news in the same study: consuming a serving of nuts and legumes (beans, peas) instead of a serving of processed red meat every day may lower dementia risk, the findings suggest. In the study, replacing a serving of processed red meat with a serving of nuts, beans, or tofu daily was connected to a 20% lower dementia risk.
Examples of processed red meats are bacon, ham, sausages like pepperoni, corned beef and other luncheon meats.