Nuts or beans instead of processed meat reduces CVD & diabetes risk

Alpro Foundation Supported Research

Sabrina Schlesinger and her team from the Leibniz Center for Diabetes Research at Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf investigated the impact of switching from animal-based to plant-based foods on various health outcomes.

Published 16th November 2023 in the BMC Medicine, this systematic review demonstrates that replacing animal-based foods such as processed or red meat and eggs with healthful plant-based foods such as nuts, legumes, and whole grains is associated with reduced risk of all cause mortality and negative health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes (DM2).(1)

This study adds further support for an overall shift from animal- to plant-based diets to promote better health.

Method

Schlesinger and colleagues assessed the findings from 37 publications, including 24 prospective cohort studies that investigated the associations between substituting animal-based foods for plant-based foods and health.

• Animal-based foods: meat, including processed, poultry, fish and shellfish, eggs, and dairy

• Plant-based foods: legumes, nuts, whole and refined grains, fruit and vegetables, and oils.

• Health outcomes include: incidence and mortality from CVD, coronary heart disease (CHD), myocardial infarct (MI), stroke, and DM2 as well as all-cause mortality.

The majority of studies used food frequency questionnaires to assess dietary quality.

Results

Cardiovascular disease

Replacing 50g processed meat in the diet with 28g and 50g of nuts daily resulted in a 27% reduced incidence of CVD, whilst consuming 50g of legumes daily in place of processed meat reduced CVD risk by 23%.

Consuming 25g to 28g nuts daily in place of one egg was associated with a 17% reduced CVD risk.

The authors found no clear evidence that replacing poultry and fish or seafood with nuts or legumes reduced the risk of CVD.

Type 2 diabetes

Replacing 50g processed meat daily with 10g to 28g nuts was associated with a 22% reduced incidence of DM2.

Consuming 30g whole grains or 10g nuts daily, in place of one egg was associated with a 21% and 18% reduced DM2 incidence.

All-cause mortality

All-cause mortality was reduced by 21% when a daily intake of 50g processed meat was replaced with 28g to 50g of nuts.

The authors were unable to perform a meta-analysis due to the lack of suitable studies.

Conclusion

Replacing processed meat and eggs with realistic portions of healthful plant-based protein foods such as nuts and legumes can help to lower the incidence of CVD and DM2. Additionally, displacing egg consumption with whole grains was also associated with a reduced incidence DM2.

Whilst their key findings are in-line with previously published reviews, the authors highlight that further research is needed to confirm these findings. Additionally, the authors felt it would be of benefit to investigate the relationship between meat and dairy replacement and health.

Save article as PDF

Save article as PDF