People who regularly eat a helping of more than 160 grammes - the equivalent of about three sausages - have a much greater chance of dying prematurely compared to those who don’t touch the delicacy, the study, based on findings in 10 European countries, points out.
The chance of dying - from any cause - was 44 per cent greater for people with a habit of eating sausages and other processed red meat, according to the report published in the journal BMC Medicine last week.
A Dar es Salaam resident enjoys a sausage yesterday.
Few consumers are aware of the dangers
of eating processed red meat.
High consumption of processed meat leads to a 72 per cent increased risk of dying from heart disease, and an 11 per cent increased risk of dying from cancer.
The study leader, Prof Sabine Rohrmann of the University of Zurich in Switzerland, said:
“Overall, we estimate that 3 per cent of premature deaths each year could be prevented if people ate less than 20 grammes of processed meat per day.”
The researchers cross-examined more than 450,000 people around Britain and tracked their lives for more than 13 years.
In Tanzania today, where sausages have sneaked into the daily menu of mostly urban populations, this news should sober them up.
A specialist at the Amana Hospital in Dar es Salaam, Dr Meshack Shimwela, said the study may be very true.
He noted that often, processed meat has preservatives that have a close link with cancerous tumours.
‘Nitric compounds (No3) usually cause abdominal cancer,” Dr Shimwela said.
He added that meat products are the main carriers of cholesterol which may cause heart diseases and obesity.
“What I can say is: people must be careful with their diet because even taking red meat regularly is not safe at all,” he said.
A diet expert Pazi Mwinyimvua concurred that red meat is not healthy.
“Red meat from cows, goats and pigs contains large amounts of cholesterol which can ruin your health,” he said.
However, Mr Mwinyimvua stressed that people should not stop taking meat; what they should avoid is taking it too regularly.
“Usually, red meat has cholesterol which, when used in large quantities and regularly, can surround the consumer’s blood vessels and cause heart attack,” he said.
The good news is: the British study did not link white meat such as fish and chicken with any diseases.
Usually, sausages are made by mixing and combining animals’ remains that are deemed unsalable at meat outlets and which bear too much fat and cholesterol.
During the research, more than 26,344 participants of the study died. The dead - 44 per cent - were those who took the biggest amount of processed meat.
Also, eating just 50 grammes of meat per day, which is equal to a single sausages, increases the chance of cancer by fifth.
Stressing on that, Mr Tim Lang, the Professor of Food Policy at City University, London, said: “The study is another plank going into the order of saying we have to lower the use of processed meat”
During the follow-up period, a total of 5,556 participants died from heart and artery diseases, 9,861 from cancer, and 1,068 from respiratory diseases.
In general, diets that are high in processed meat were linked to unhealthy lifestyles - men and women who ate the most processed meat ate the fewest fruits and vegetables, and were more likely to smoke.Source The Citizen
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