Does eating beef in a plant diet hurt your health?
Effect of Including Lean Red Meat in a Plant-Based Dietary Pattern on Biomarkers of Cardiometabolic Disease Risk
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Scientists gave 17 overweight women two different plant-based diets for one week each: one with two servings of lean beef, one without. They checked their blood to see if the beef made them more inflamed or raised their blood sugar.
Surprising Findings
No change in inflammation markers (IL-6, TNF-α, CRP) or insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) despite adding two daily servings of red meat.
Public health guidelines often warn that red meat increases inflammation and cardiometabolic risk — but this study found no such effect in the short term, even in a high-risk group (overweight women).
Practical Takeaways
If you follow a plant-based diet and miss meat, adding two servings of lean beef per week may not harm your blood sugar or inflammation levels — at least in the short term.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Scientists gave 17 overweight women two different plant-based diets for one week each: one with two servings of lean beef, one without. They checked their blood to see if the beef made them more inflamed or raised their blood sugar.
Surprising Findings
No change in inflammation markers (IL-6, TNF-α, CRP) or insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) despite adding two daily servings of red meat.
Public health guidelines often warn that red meat increases inflammation and cardiometabolic risk — but this study found no such effect in the short term, even in a high-risk group (overweight women).
Practical Takeaways
If you follow a plant-based diet and miss meat, adding two servings of lean beef per week may not harm your blood sugar or inflammation levels — at least in the short term.
Publication
Journal
Physiology
Year
2024
Authors
Kamille A. Piacquadio, Jess Gwin, Heather J. Leidy
Related Content
Claims (3)
Lean beef can be part of a healthy plant-based diet without hurting your heart or blood sugar markers — at least in the short term for overweight women.
For overweight women, eating two servings of lean beef a day for a week doesn’t change key blood markers related to heart disease or diabetes risk, compared to eating the same diet without meat.
A predominantly plant-based dietary pattern incorporating lean animal proteins provides adequate protein, essential fatty acids, micronutrients, and dietary fiber, while conferring metabolic benefits comparable to low-carbohydrate diets without elevating LDL cholesterol or increasing cardiovascular risk.