By Jimmy Downs

Thursday Jan 17, 2013 (foodconsumer.org) -- A study in Current Nutrition and Food Science provides evidence suggesting that eating meat can increase risk of coronary heart disease mortality in women, but not men.

The study led by Yasuyuki Nakamura and colleagues actually finds that high intake of saturated fatty acids was associated with increased risk of death from coronary heart disease.   Because saturated fatty acids are largely present in meat, the study indirectly suggests that eating meat may increase risk of death from coronary heart disease.

Early studies in the United States and Europe have shown an association between dietary fatty acid intakes and risk of coronary heart disease, but not all studies are consistent.  The current study was intended to examine the association between dietary total, saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, cholesterrol and the risk of death from coronary heart disease in men and women.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from 7,819 community residents including 3,254 men and 4,565 women aged 30 years or older who were free of stroke and coronary heart disease at baseline and followed for 15  years. During the follow-up, 42 CHD deaths were recorded. 

After ajustment for age, vegetable intake and other confounders, women in the highest quintile of saturated fatty acids were almost triple as likely to die from coronary disease as those in the lowest quintile.  But no such an association was found in men.

Other fatty acids were not found associated with risk of death from coronary heart disease.

The researchers concluded "SFA (saturated fatty acids) intake was positively associated with CHD (coronary heart disease) mortality independent of confounders in women, but not in men."

Saturated fatty acids are largely found in meats, meaning that eating meat may increase risk of death from coronary heart disease.

It has been known for long that eating a plant-based diet can help prevent coronary heart disease or halt its progression or eventually reverse the condition of the disease, according to Dr.  T Colin Campbell, a professor in Nutrition at Cornell University.