Study finds white meat is no better than red meat against high blood cholesterol
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A study by doctors at the University of California, San Francisco, found that that white meat is no better than red meat for people trying to reduce their blood cholesterol through diet, although some nutritionists are skeptical about the research.
Dr. Ronald Krauss, the study’s senior author and a scientist at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute in California, said that there really was no difference between the two.
He said that consumers who want to lower their blood cholesterol should substitute plant-based proteins for both red and white meat.
Krauss added that one shouldn’t emphasize those proteins too heavily and keep them at a moderate level.The study is the largest of its kind to focus on dietary proteins, Krauss said.
It took a number of years to carry out, he said — and the results were unexpected.
The study, published on June 4 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, followed 113 people on six different diets prescribed by researchers to track the impact of various types of proteins on blood cholesterol levels.
Carol Dombrow, a nutrition consultant for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, said the study looks “well done” but its sample size was small and added it’s premature to make any big conclusions on red versus white meat when it comes to controlling blood cholesterol.
The study was financed by the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, and the National Institutes of Health.
However, two of the study’s authors had received an unrelated grant from Dairy Management Inc., a lobby group for U.S. dairy farmers, according to the research credits.
