Red meat linked to heart disease in new study

The media this week has been reporting on the latest study linking red meat with poor health outcomes.  Nature Medicine has just published a study linking even lean, unprocessed red meat with heart disease.

In Intestinal microbiota metabolism of L-carnitine, a nutrient in red meat, promotes atherosclerosis by R.A. Koeth et al, researchers studied mice and humans and found that the chemical L-carnitine is associated with the build-up of fatty deposits in blood vessels.  This chemical is also sometimes used as a dietary supplement by body builders and athletes.

Koeth and his colleagues point out that this is an additional issue, alongside the influence of cholesterol in the meat, which may explain why some studies have linked even lean red meat to heart problems.

Contact your health library for the full text of this article: Nature Medicine (2013) doi:10.1038/nm.3145.