WEDNESDAY, Aug. 21, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Eating red meat and processed meat can increase a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes, a new review finds.

Regularly eating 50 grams of processed meat a day -- the equivalent of two slices of ham -- increased by 15% a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes within the next 10 years, results showed.

Likewise, eating 100 grams of unprocessed red meat daily – for example, a small steak  -- was linked to a 10% higher risk of type 2 diabetes.

“Our research provides the most comprehensive evidence to date of an association between eating processed meat and unprocessed red meat and a higher future risk of type 2 diabetes,” said senior researcher Nita Forouhi, a program leader in nutritional epidemiology with the University of Cambridge in the U.K.

For the study, researchers analyzed pooled data for nearly 2 million people who participated in 31 different studies in 20 countries.

The study also found an 8% increased risk of diabetes among people who regularly ate poultry like chicken, turkey or duck.

However, that association became weaker as more factors were taken into account, while the links between diabetes and red or unprocessed meat persisted, researchers said.

The study “supports recommendations to limit the consumption of processed meat and unprocessed red meat to reduce type 2 diabetes cases in the population,” Forouhi said in a Cambridge news release.

“While our findings provide more comprehensive evidence on the association between poultry consumption and type 2 diabetes than was previously available, the link remains uncertain and needs to be investigated further,” Forouhi added.

The new study was published Aug. 20 in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology journal.

More information

The Cleveland Clinic has more on the health risks of red meat.

SOURCE: University of Cambridge, news release, Aug. 20, 2024