A new study finds filling your plate with things like burgers and bacon may increase your risk for cognitive decline and dementia.
Eating a lot of red meat, especially the processed kind, isn’t only bad for your heart.
A new study finds filling your plate with things like burgers and bacon may increase your risk for cognitive decline and dementia.
The study included nearly 134,000 adults whose health and dietary habits were tracked for up to 43 years.
The results? Eating more than one serving of red meat per day — or about 3 ounces — was associated with a 16% increased risk of cognitive decline.
And eating more than a quarter-serving of processed red meat, like bacon, sausage or hot dogs, increased the odds of dementia by 13% and cognitive decline by 14%.
What’s more, people’s brains appear to age faster with every additional serving of red meat they consumed.
However, the scientists also found replacing one serving of red meat per day with nuts or legumes decreased dementia risk by approximately 20%.
They say red meat might harm brain health by influencing unhealthy gut bacteria, but more research is needed.
Source: Neurology
Author Affiliations: Mass General Brigham, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health , The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
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