Researchers gleaned their data from a study of 37,698 men who were followed for 22 years and 83,644 women who were tracked for 28 years. Subjects answered surveys about their eating habits every four years. Those who ate a card-deck-sized serving of unprocessed red meat each day, on average, had a 13 per cent higher risk of dying than those who did not eat red meat as frequently. And if the red meat was processed, as in a hot dog or two slices of bacon, that risk jumped to 20 per cent. However, substituting nuts for red meat lowered total mortality risk by 19 per cent, while poultry or whole grains lowered the risk by 14 per cent and fish did so by 7 per cent.

The authors said between 7 and 9 per cent of all deaths in the study "could be prevented if all the participants consumed fewer than 0.5 servings per day of total red meat". Processed red meat has been shown to contain ingredients such as saturated fat, sodium, nitrites and some carcinogens that are linked to many chronic ailments including heart disease and cancer. "More than 75 per cent of the $US2.6 trillion ($2.5 trillion) in annual US health care costs are from chronic disease," said an accompanying commentary by Dean Ornish, a physician and dietary expert at the University of California, San Francisco. "Eating less red meat is likely to reduce morbidity from these illnesses, thereby reducing health care costs." Australian perspective

Veronique Droulez, marketing nutrition manager for Meat and Livestock Australia, told this website the study relies on a different set of circumstances to Australia's. "It is important to note that the findings of the study are specific to nurses and health professionals in the US, hence the findings may not be generally applicable to the Australian population," she said. "The participants in the particular study were also less likely to be physically active, more likely to smoke, drink alcohol and have a higher body mass index. They were more likely to have a higher energy intake and ate less whole grains, fruits and vegetables," she said. Australians on the other hand tend to eat red meat fresh, cooked from scratch and with plenty of vegetables, she said. "The scientific evidence to support the role of lean red meat in a healthy diet is robust; nothing in this study proves otherwise," she said.

Ms Droulez said red meat was a nutrient-rich food and an important source of iron and zinc. "When consumed as part of a healthy diet and lifestyle, there is no evidence that its consumption has adverse effects on health. In fact, there is good evidence that its consumption helps to prevent iron and zinc deficiencies – well established conditions known to contribute to the global burden of disease," she said. Cut down portion sizes: dietitians Dietitians Association of Australia spokeswoman and dietitian, Julie Gilbert, said the key for healthy food habits was to cut down portion sizes, saturated fats and salt. "This is just one survey, comprehensive as it is, and you can't rely entirely on it and cut out red meat entirely," she said.

"We certainly should not be cutting out red meat completely, rather we should be looking at how much of red meat we are actually eating and whether or not that's a lean red meat or a processed meat," she said. Ms Gilbert said focusing on processed red meat meant hamburgers, sausage rolls and processed ham - which is higher in saturated fats and salt. "There is a big difference to having a nice cut of lean steak from the butcher to these foods," she said. "We are certainly saying to people to have lean red meat around 65-100gm a serve at least three to four times a week," she said. "There is plenty of other good research that shows keeping in a healthy weight range is a way of reducing those health risks mentioned in the survey. We tell people on a regular basis don't have takeaways, don't have biscuits and cakes but we don't seem to get that message across."

Sugar-sweetened drinks A separate study, also led by Hu but published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, found that men who drank sugar-sweetened beverages daily faced a 20 per cent higher risk of heart disease than men who did not. The study tracked more than 42,000 men, most of them Caucasian, over 22 years. It found higher heart risks, and higher levels of inflammation and harmful lipids known as triglycerides in daily sweet-drinkers. The effects were not seen in men who drank as many as two sugar-sweetened beverages a week. Hu said the research "provides strong justification for reducing sugary beverage consumption among patients and, more importantly, in the general population".

Loading Heart disease is the biggest killer in the United States and top risk factors include obesity, smoking, lack of exercise, diabetes and poor eating habits. AFP with Ilya Gridneff

