According to a study recently published in the British Journal of Nutrition, for Hispanic/Latino populations, the risk of having a heart attack is greater for those who consume red and processed meat.
The study looked at the diets of over 2000 participants. Some of these participants were from the Costa Rice Heart Study and had survived a previous heart attack, and the others were a control group. When their diets were compared, it was found that the risk of non-fatal heart attack was higher in those who consumed the largest amount of red and processed meat.
The research showed that eating red and processed meat regularly increased the participants chance of having a heart attack by approximately 30%. Those who ate red meat once a day had a 31% greater chance of having a non-fatal heart attack and those who ate processed meat five times a week had an increased risk of 29%.
The authors of the study have suggested that an increasing demand for meat in Hispanic/Latino countries may lead to a greater percentage of the population developing cardiovascular disease. They attributed the negative effects of the meat on heart health to the high levels of iron, nitrates, and sodium present in red and processed meat.
