Meat Intake And Insulin Resistance In Women Without Type 2 Diabetes, Journal of Diabetes Research, July 2015
Purpose. To examine the relationship between meat intake and insulin resistance (IR) in 292 nondiabetic women.
Results. Meat intake was directly related to HOMA (F = 7.4; P = 0.007). Women with moderate or high meat intakes had significantly higher HOMA levels than their counterparts. Odds ratio results showed that the low meat quartile had 67% lower odds of being IR (75th percentile) compared to their counterparts (OR = 0.33; 95% CI = 0.16–0.71). These findings changed little after adjusting for all covariates simultaneously (OR = 0.34; 95% CI = 0.14–0.83).
In conclusion, it appears that meat intake, particularly red and processed meats, is associated with higher levels of insulin resistance in middle-aged women without type 2 diabetes.
Some background:
Insulin resistance is a condition in which the body produces insulin but does not use it effectively. When people have insulin resistance, glucose builds up in the blood instead of being absorbed by the cells, leading to type 2 diabetes or prediabetes.
Most people with insulin resistance don’t know they have it for many years — until they develop type 2 diabetes, a serious, lifelong disease. The good news is that if people learn they have insulin resistance early on, they can often prevent or delay diabetes by making changes to their lifestyle.
Notably, “very lean meat” was not associated with insulin resistance. That tells you something about high-fat diets and their effect on insulin resistance.