N=133,000 over 40 year time period
Observational study so limitations may apply but the findings do hold after adjusting for a large list of factors I will quote here:
educational attainments, family history of dementia, menopausal status with hormone use status, total energy intake, regular antidepressant drug use, history of depression, BMI, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, neighborhood SES [socioeconomic status], marital status, living arrangement, smoking status, histories of hypertension, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia and intakes of sugar-sweetened beverages, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, poultry, fish, eggs, nuts and legumes, low-fat dairy products, high-fat dairy products, and alcohol
Yet another reason to shift to more veganism.
Go vegan
At old age meat eaters have more muscle mass (left), and that’s a big deal too.
Don’t go extremist over some obscure paper is all I’m saying. We should all eat less meat BTW especially red.
I would wager its not because of the meat but because microplastic contamination is much higher in processed food, especially meats. People are often eating the maximum dosage for plastics in a year in one meal. Its very hard to avoid. Microplastic contamination is highly correlated to dementia.
Fuck it. I’m having an A5 Wagyu soon, as a bday treat.
I find it hard to believe they can adjust meaningfully for that many variables. No mention of obesity, which is likely the real issue here, in the article. It feels like there is a study “proving” a link to some different thing to cognitive decline seemingly every month.
They have a large data set, you can adjust for a lot more when your sample size is 133,000
No mention of obesity
They account for BMI as mentioned in what I quoted
Kinda glad my body decided to just stop digesting beef a few years ago. I’m learning so much about what I can be potentially avoiding by not being able to consume it. Beef just sits in my stomach for an absurdly long time. So I don’t eat it. I have mostly fish as my animal protein, but substitute with plant based proteins and sometimes chicken to avoid too much mercury. I eat pork on occasion but it isn’t my favorite. I tried going vegetarian and vegan a couple of times and my already poor health declined. Now I do whatever it is that I do lol. I just eat what I like and what I know is good for my specific health conditions.
processed
Thank goodness I never found processed meat appealing or appetizing.
They also found associations with unprocessed red meats too
Unprocessed red meat intake of ≥1.00 serving per day, compared with <0.50 serving per day, was associated with a 16% higher risk of SCD [subjective cognitive decline] (RR 1.16; 95% CI 1.03–1.30; plinearity = 0.04).
There’s plenty of good reasons to cut down on meat, health is only one of them. I try to go meatless whenever I can.
I guess it isn’t terribly surprising given red meat is known to be inflammatory and inflammation can cause cognitive decline.
