Eating meat linked to weight gain

Being a little less carnivorous and decreasing meat consumption in particular may help you stay slim.

Meat intake may be related to weight gain because of its high energy and fat content. Studies have shown mixed results about the association between meat consumption and weight gain. To study  this association, researchers studied 103,455 men and 270,348 women, aged between 25 – 70 years, from 10 different European countries participating in a study of cancer and nutrition and other lifestyle factors.

It was found that Danes, Germans, Spaniards and Swedes were the biggest meat-eaters, with men and women eating around 300 and 200 calories respectively worth of meat on a daily basis. Among all meat-eating populations, Greeks ate the least (about 200 calories a day for men and 140 for women). Over the 5-year follow-up period, both men and women gained about a pound a year, on average, although women gained slightly less than men. And the more meat a person ate, the more they gained; for every additional 250 grams  of meat a person ate daily , their 5-year weight gain would be 2 kg.

When the researchers looked at different types of meat separately, it was found that the strongest association with weight gain was for poultry, followed by processed meats and red meat.  Because meat is "energy-dense" (meaning it packs more calories by weight than other foods like vegetables  or fruits), it could influence appetite control. However, the researchers did attempt to take overall dietary pattern into account, as well as education, physical activity level, whether or not people smoked, and their total calorie intake.

Meat eating could be a part of an overall unhealthy diet or lifestyle, and this study supports going the vegetarian way or reducing meat consumption to maintain a healthy weight.