Can Red Meat Make You Age Faster?

According to a new study highlighted in the Irish Examiner, consuming red meat and not enough fruits and vegetables could increase the body’s “biological age and contribute to health problems.

Researchers found that red meat causes a moderate increase in serum phosphate levels. Combined with a poor overall diet, this can increase a person’s biological age. Scientists describe chronological age as a person’s years of age while biological age is more like a person’s “miles on the clock.

Conducted at the University of Glasgow, the study analyzed people from the most deprived to the least deprived areas covered by NHS Greater Glasgow. It found that accelerated aging and elevated phosphate levels in the most deprived men were directly related to frequency of red meat consumption and general lack of fruits and vegetables.

Reduced kidney function and mild to moderate chronic kidney disease were linked to the high phosphate levels in these deprived men. Diet-related high phosphate levels “have previously been linked to higher mortality risk, premature vascular ageing and kidney disease, the article states.

This isn’t the first study to find that animal products are making men sick. A recent Quartz article reports that from cancer to heart disease, the meat industry isn’t only killing animals; it’s also killing humans—men in particular.

Plant-based diets not only protect our health; they also spare countless animals from a lifetime of suffering on factory farms.

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