No matter how it’s cooked, regular consumption of red meat increases your risk of kidney failure, a recent Singapore study found.
Having a serving of red meat every day raises one’s risk of kidney failure by 40 per cent, a new Singapore Chinese Health Study found.
Over 15 years, researchers observed the diets and living patterns of more than 63,000 participants, who were between 45 to 74 years of age.
They then established if specific factors increased one’s propensity for chronic conditions like cancer, osteoporosis and cardiovascular diseases.
Within the pool of participants, the top 25 per cent of red meat consumers were 40 per cent more susceptible to kidney failure, when compared to the bottom 25 per cent .
The study’s findings, which also considered the diets of vegetarian participants, were put together by researchers from the National University of Singapore’s Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health and Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School.
“We embarked on our study to see what advice should be given to chronic kidney disease patients or to the general population worried about their kidney health regarding types or sources of protein intake,” said Professor Koh Woon Puay, the study’s principal investigator.
Instead of consuming red meat such as pork and beef, opt for other protein sources, the study suggested. This could lower risk of kidney failure by as much as 62 per cent.
Swapping out a serving of red meat for poultry reduces one’s risk by 62.4 per cent. Turning to alternatives such as fish and eggs causes the risk factor to drop by 48.6 per cent and 44.9 per cent respectively.
The island nation had 2,466 dialysis patients in 1999, and the figure more than doubled to 5,912 in 2014, according to a Singapore Renal Registry report.
Similarly, the number of people diagnosed with kidney failure every year increased from 680 in 1999 to 1,730 in 2014.
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