The sugar in red meat can increase the risk of diabetes

Still, this molecule ends up in human tissues from meat food. There, the immune system recognizes it as foreign and reacts to it.

Now researchers are investigating whether this encounter could explain part of the link between red meat and type 2 diabetes.

French The NutriNet-Santé study followed nearly 90,000 adults for more than seven years.

The follow-up found that the intake of the sugar molecule from red meat was associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes when it was consumed in abundance. The molecule has the symbol Neu5Gc.

The intake of the studied molecule was estimated from food diaries. During the follow-up, 966 cases of type 2 diabetes were found.

Because the study was observational, it does not directly show that Neu5Gc causes diabetes.

Research has been on display In the meeting of European diabetes researchers In Milan now at the turn of September-October.

”At issue is not a peer-reviewed study, i.e. this has not yet been published, just presented at a congress. As far as preliminary results,” says the nutrition science professor Anne-Maria Pajari from the University of Helsinki.

However, he points out that NutriNet-Santé is known material. Almost 90,000 participants bring statistical power to the population survey.

According to the researchers’ hypothesis, continuous exposure to Neu5Gc could maintain low-grade inflammation in the body. It is the possible mechanism that makes the result interesting.

Could you Neu5Gc-induced inflammation explains part of the statistical association between red meat and type 2 diabetes? According to Pajar, the mechanism is basically biologically possible.

If Neu5Gc ends up in tissues and the immune system reacts to it as a foreign molecule, an inflammatory reaction can result.

In the study, those who received the most Neu5Gc had a 63 percent higher risk of type 2 diabetes than those who received the least.

However, the link was no longer statistically significant when the researchers took into account how much red meat people ate. The mechanism of the study should be verified by separate studies.

No similar connection was observed with Neu5Gc obtained from dairy products.

Next According to Pajar, we should find out if Neu5Gc is absorbed from food into the body and how effectively, and if there is an immune response and low-grade inflammation against it.

The assumption would be strengthened if the inflammation could be seen directly in the measured markers of inflammation. In addition, the observation should be repeated in another population and in a different food culture.

Also Pajar’s group’s research has investigated the effects of eating meat.

Published this year Papumies- study, healthy men of working age either ate a lot of red and processed meat for six weeks or replaced a large part of it with legumes.

No difference was found between the groups in low-grade inflammation, although it was measured with several different markers.

So it is also open whether the risk of diabetes is explained by Neu5Gc or another characteristic of red meat, and whether the effect could be seen mainly in risk groups, although it was not seen in healthy people in the Finnish study.

Pottery reminds that the diet is a whole. For example, fiber, vegetables, berries and fruits can affect low-grade inflammation and thus also the effects of other parts of the diet.

The effect of a single molecule obtained from muscle can therefore be difficult to distinguish from the rest of the diet.