Red Meat Chemical Damages Heart, Say U.S. Scientists: BBC Health

[Stuart G]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22042995#

7 April 2013 Last updated at 20:08 ET

Red meat chemical 'damages heart', say US scientists.
By James Gallagher

Health and science reporter, BBC News
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A study in the journal Nature Medicine showed that carnitine in red meat was broken down by bacteria in the gut. This kicked off a chain of events that resulted in higher levels of cholesterol and an increased risk of heart disease.

Dieticians warned there may be a risk to people taking carnitine supplements. There has been a wealth of studies suggesting that regularly eating red meat may be damaging to health.

In the UK, the government recommends eating no more than 70g of red or processed meat a day - the equivalent of two slices of bacon.

Saturated fat and the way processed meat is preserved are thought to contribute to heart problems. However, this was not thought to be the whole story.................

Gut bugs

Experiments on mice and people showed that bacteria in the gut could eat carnitine. Carnitine was broken down into a gas, which was converted in the liver to a chemical called TMAO. In the study, TMAO was strongly linked with the build-up of fatty deposits in blood vessels, which can lead to heart disease and death.

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another more complete link from Scientific American:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=red-meat-clogs-arteries-bacteria

This is another link on the study ( the actual study is in Nature Medicine)..this is Nature Magazine:
http://www.nature.com/news/red-meat-wrong-bacteria-bad-news-for-hearts-1.12746


This proves the theory about red meat. The study presents a smoking gun for heart disease. Guess who consumes the most red meat?? Not the U.S.A...we are second:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/03/world-meat-consumption_n_1475760.html#s935926&title=2_United_States

[jollyreaper2112]

1. People have been eating red meat for years

Were they dying of other causes long before hear trouble showed up, the heart trouble was not correctly identified or what here?

I find trying to navigate the maze of food choices deeply difficult.

[Stuart G]

2. I like the tast of red meat..but...what about this:

Last year 596,000 died from heart disease. If you combine this report, with the book on salt, sugar and fat, I find a good reason not to eat red meat. So once every couple of weeks might be ok, but more often than that..not for me. Everyone has to make choices.
We know that we salt the meat cause it takes better. In a restarant if we order it, it is already really salted so what is the use of setting up high blood pressure ??? not good....at least not good for me.

[Quantess]

3. Why on earth would someone take carnitine supplements?

To look "beefier"?