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Published: Jun 13, 2014
By Todd Neale, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today

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Eating too much processed red meat — including sausages and deli meats — might increase the risk of heart failure and of dying from the disease, a study of Swedish men showed.

Compared with men who ate less than 25 grams of processed red meat each day, those who ate at least 75 grams per day were more likely to develop heart failure (HR 1.28, 95% CI 1.10-1.48) and to die from heart failure (HR 2.43, 95% CI 1.52-3.88) during follow-up, according to Joanna Kaluza, PhD, of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences in Poland, and colleagues.

There were no such relationships with unprocessed red meat, they reported online in Circulation: Heart Failure, adding that further research is needed.

“These results, if confirmed, are in accordance with the previously reported positive associations between processed red meat consumption and risk of other cardiovascular diseases and cancer, and provide further support to the recommendation to limit consumption of processed red meat,” they wrote.

Prior research has demonstrated relationships between the consumption of red meat or processed meat and risks of coronary heart disease, stroke, and cardiovascular death. Two studies examining the issue in heart failure yielded conflicting results.

In the current study, Kaluza and colleagues looked at data from the prospective Cohort of Swedish Men (COSM), which included men ages 45 to 79 who were living in two counties in central Sweden. This analysis was restricted to the 37,035 participants who did not have a history of heart failure, ischemic heart disease, or cancer at baseline.

All of the men completed a self-administered food frequency questionnaire at baseline, and on it they reported their consumption of unprocessed meat, which included pork, beef/veal, and minced meat (generally prepared without food additives in Sweden), processed meat, which included sausages, cold cuts like ham and salami, blood pudding/sausage, and liver paté.

During an average follow-up of 11.8 years, there were 2,891 incident cases of heart failure and 266 deaths from heart failure identified in national registries.

Greater consumption of processed red meat was associated with greater risks of both outcomes; in a dose-response analysis, each increase of 50 grams per day was associated with an 8% greater risk of developing heart failure and a 38% greater risk of dying from it.

Although the study was not designed to establish a causal relationship between meat consumption and heart failure, the authors speculated about some potential mechanisms, including increases in blood pressure from high sodium content, adverse effects of nitrites and phosphate found in food additives, and increased cardiovascular risk stemming from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons found in smoked and grilled meats.

They acknowledged some limitations of the analysis, including the lack of information on the use of beta-blockers, statins, or other cardiovascular drugs and the possible misclassification of meat intake.

From the American Heart Association:

• 2013 AHA/ACC Guideline on Lifestyle Management to Reduce Cardiovascular Risk
• Lifestyle Management to Reduce Cardiovascular Risk Slide Set (PDF)
• Lifestyle Management to Reduce Cardiovascular Risk Pocket Card (Preview)
• 2013 AHA/ACC Guideline on Lifestyle Management to Reduce Cardiovascular Risk: A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines