Eating about one serving of meat daily puts ethnic Chinese adults at increased risk of diabetes, a study here has found, echoing research that has mainly been conducted on Westerners so far. The culprit is the dietary haem iron content found in meat and poultry, said the senior author of the study, Professor Koh Woon Puay of the Duke-NUS Medical School.
The Duke-NUS study is of Chinese Singaporeans and permanent residents aged between 45 and 74 years when they were recruited between 1993 and1998. The large-scale cohort study seeks to determine the impact of dietary and other environmental factors in common chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes among the Singapore adult population. Out of the 45,411 participants, none of whom had diabetes at the start, 5,207 were found to have diabetes after 11 years of study.
The average meat consumption in Singapore is 97g a day and Prof Koh said cutting down one’s intake of meat was a good step to take.
Though other ethnic groups were not included in the study, Prof Koh predicts a similar result.
Dr Annie Ling, director of the Policy, Research and Surveillance Division of the Health Promotion Board (HPB), said: “These findings affirm HPB’s recommendation to consume red meat in moderation, and that a healthy and balanced diet should contain sufficient and varied protein sources.”
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Source: The Straits Times, 6 September 2017