The reduction of processed consumption meat by 30% could prevent thousands of cases of diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease in the US over ten years, according to a study published in the journal “The Lancet Planetary Health”.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill developed a simulation tool to estimate the multiple health effects of reducing consumption of processed and unprocessed red meat.

They used data from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) national health survey to create a simulated, representative sample of the US adult population, called a microsimulation. Effects were assessed in the total population and separately by age, sex, household income and ethnicity.

They calculated that the reduction by a third of processed meat could prevent more than 350,000 cases diabetes92,500 cases of cardiovascular disease and 53,300 events cancer of the colon in a decade.

Reducing consumption of both processed and unprocessed red meat by 30% would result in 1,073,400 fewer cases of diabetes, 382,400 fewer cases of cardiovascular disease, and 84,400 fewer cases of colon cancer.

Finally, a 30% reduction in unprocessed red meat intake alone would result in 732,000 fewer cases of diabetes, 291,500 fewer cases of cardiovascular disease, and 32,200 fewer cases of colon cancer. The finding that most cases of disease are prevented by reducing unprocessed red meat is partly due to the fact that the average daily intake of unprocessed red meat is higher than processed, the researchers note.

The research team notes that these estimates should be interpreted with caution and that more research is needed.