A new study finds that heme iron, found in red meat and other animal products, may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes. diabetes This is a 26 percent increase compared to the non-heme iron found in plant-based foods. The study has been published in the journal Nature Metabolism.

Previous studies relied only on epidemiological data, however, in this study, the researchers “integrated a variety of information, including traditional metabolic biomarkers and cutting-edge metabolomics,” said lead author Fenglei Wang, a research associate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, US. Metabolomics is the study of small molecules within cells and tissues.

“This helped us gain a more comprehensive understanding of the association between iron intake and type 2 diabetes risk, as well as the potential metabolic pathways underlying this relationship,” Wang said.

Reducing red meat intake and adopting a plant-rich diet may help reduce diabetes risk, the researchers said. The findings also raised concerns about the addition of heme iron to increasingly popular plant-based meat alternatives to enhance the taste and appearance of meat.

For the study, researchers used 36 years of dietary data from more than 200,000 adults, about 80 percent of whom were women. The participants were included in the Nurses’ Health Study I and II and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, which looked at risk factors for major chronic diseases.

The researchers analyzed participants’ iron intake in different forms, including heme, non-heme and supplements, and their type 2 diabetes status. In a smaller group of over 37,000 participants, the team looked at the biological processes behind the link between heme iron and type 2 diabetes.

To do this, data on participants’ plasma metabolic biomarkers were analyzed, including data on insulin levels, blood sugar, lipids and inflammation. The researchers then looked at the metabolomic profiles of more than 9,000 participants; plasma levels of small-molecule metabolites, which are substances derived from bodily processes such as breaking down food or chemicals.

“We found that of the different forms of iron intake, only high intake of heme iron was associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes,” the authors wrote.

They also found that heme iron accounted for more than half of the risk of type 2 diabetes associated with unprocessed red meat and a moderate proportion of the risk for several T2D-related dietary patterns. The authors added, “We observed that high intake of heme iron was associated with an adverse profile of plasma biomarkers in the domains of insulinemia, lipids, inflammation, iron stores, and metabolites, which are related to type 2 diabetes.”

Get the latest news on Times Now as well as breaking news and top headlines from across health and the world.