Consumption of poultry – a category that includes chicken, turkey, duck, geese, and game birds – is on the rise globally, thanks to its low cost and the perceived healthiness of white meat. However, a new preliminary study out of Italy challenges the consensus that white meat is healthier than red meat, opening the door for further research.
Researchers at Italy’s National Institute of Gastroenterology – whose work was reported by News Medical – decided to interrogate that perception with a first-of-its-kind study on the association between white meat consumption and the risk of death from gastrointestinal cancers (commonly associated with red and processed meat) and all other causes.
Using two existing study cohorts, the researchers followed more than 4,800 middle-aged adults over an average of 19 years, drawing on data on participants’ diets, lifestyle habits, medical history, height and weight.
By the end of the study period, the mean age of survivors (79 percent) was 66 years old, while the overall mean age of the 1,028 participants who died (21 percent) was 81. Gastrointestinal cancers – which includes liver, pancreatic and colorectal cancers – killed 108 (10.5 percent) compared to 180 (17.5 percent) for all other forms of cancer. The remaining 72 percent of deaths were attributed to other causes, including cardiovascular disease and dementia.
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Participants who consumed more than 400 grams of meat per week accounted for over half (55.8 percent) of deaths, while those who consumed 200 grams or less accounted for just 17.7 percent.
Those who died from gastrointestinal cancers had the highest overall meat consumption of any group, consuming less red meat than people who died from other cancers and far more white meat, most of it poultry. Higher consumption of poultry (over 300 grams weekly) increased mortality from all causes by 27 percent, that added risk more than doubling (61 percent) for men.
Conversely, moderate meat consumption of 200 to 300 grams per week – about 2 to 3 servings – was associated with a 20-percent lower risk of mortality from all causes, men seeing an even bigger return with a 27-percent reduction.
The findings are preliminary, demonstrating the need for further research rather than providing conclusive results. The researchers also did not, for example, determine how the poultry was prepared, nor did they account for health and lifestyle factors, such as amount of and types of exercise. However what they have found raises new questions about the “health halo” around poultry.
