Is eating rare beef good for the heart?

A new study, recently published in the American Nutrition Society's journal Current Developments in Nutrition, examined the impact of beef consumption on cardiovascular disease risk factors.

In studies of cardiovascular and metabolic health, red meats are often grouped together for research, leading to general conclusions. While some studies suggest that consuming more red meat (such as beef) increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, recent meta-analyses have found no harmful effects of red meat on risk factors for this disease.

The results showed that eating lean beef had no significant impact on most blood lipid or lipoprotein levels compared to the control group.

Now, to clarify the specific impact of each type of red meat, scientists from the Midwest Biomedical Research Foundation in Addison, Illinois (USA), have systematically evaluated and meta-analyzed trials from the PubMed database – the primary data source of the US National Library of Medicine – and the CENTRAL database – a data source from many countries, including Canada, the UK, and Australia, up to January 2024.

A meta-analysis included 20 studies with higher beef consumption, averaging about 161 grams per day (approximately 2 servings), compared to a control diet with little or no beef, to assess the impact of beef consumption on cardiovascular risk factors, specifically blood lipid levels and blood pressure, according to the medical news website News Medical.

The results found that eating lean beef had no significant impact on most blood lipid or lipoprotein indicators, such as total cholesterol, good cholesterol, triglycerides, and many other blood lipid indicators, compared to the control group. In fact, women who ate more beef even had slightly lower triglyceride levels, according to News Medical.

The authors concluded that although a beef diet slightly increases bad cholesterol, it does not significantly affect most cardiovascular health indicators.

Although eating beef has a very small impact on bad cholesterol levels—a slight increase with higher beef consumption—researchers emphasize that lean, unprocessed beef (often used in rare beef dishes) provides high-quality protein, iron, zinc, and vitamin B12, making it a valuable nutrient with minimal impact on cardiovascular risk factors.

The authors concluded that although a beef diet slightly increases bad cholesterol, it does not significantly affect most cardiovascular health indicators. This opens the door to further examining the role of beef in nutrition.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nghien-cuu-moi-an-thit-bo-tai-co-tot-cho-tim-185241203215203957.htm