That lunchtime staple, the humble ham sandwich, has come in for a bashing in the press recently. According to many reports, eating two slices of ham a day can increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes . But what’s the science behind these headlines? The research offers a more complex picture.
A new study from the University of Cambridge highlighted an association between developing type 2 diabetes and eating processed meat like ham and bacon, and red meat such as beef and lamb. This led to headlines suggesting the risk was mainly linked to ham sandwiches . This seems to have come from the press release, which used ham as the example to quantify the amount of processed meat associated with a 15% increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes over ten years.
The research found that this risk was linked to eating an extra 50g of processed meat every day, which happens to equate to two slices of ham. A useful example thus appears to have been taken up by the media as the main cause, perhaps ignoring some of the key messages coming from the study. So, can processed and red meat really increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes? The biggest risk factors linked to developing type 2 diabetes are being over 40, having family members with type 2 diabetes, being of South Asian or African descent, or having a higher body weight – and especially a larger waist.
The Cambridge study used data from nearly 2 million people from 31 studies. Participants were followed for an aver.