About 134,000 participants, with an average age of 49 and without a diagnosis of dementia, filled out a food diary every 2 to 4 years, listing the foods they ate and how often they consumed them, Science Daily reported.
Researchers divided the participants into 3 groups: “consumers in small amounts”, “consumers in moderate amounts” and “consumers in large amounts” according to the average amount of red meat they eat per day.
As a result of the study, it was revealed that people who “consume large amounts” of processed red meat products have a 13 percent higher risk of being diagnosed with dementia in the following years compared to those who “consume small amounts”.
In the study, it was stated that there was no difference in the risk of being diagnosed with dementia between people who consumed a lot of unprocessed red meat and those who consumed it little.
On the other hand, researchers emphasized that consuming one portion of nuts or legumes instead of one portion of processed red meat per day reduces the risk of dementia by 19 percent, consuming fish by 28 percent and consuming white meat by 16 percent.
The findings of the research were published in the journal “American Academy of Neurology”.
(AA)