New study:

Red meat intake and risk of type 2 diabetes in a prospective cohort study of United States females and males, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, October 2023

Not a small study:

Our study included 216,695 participants (81% females) from the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS), NHS II, and Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS). … Over 5,483,981 person-years of follow-up.

Results:

Intakes of total, processed, and unprocessed red meat were positively and approximately linearly associated with higher risks of type 2 diabetes (T2D).

Comparing the highest to the lowest quintiles, hazard ratios (HR) were 1.62 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.53, 1.71) for total red meat, 1.51 (95% CI: 1.44, 1.58) for processed red meat, and 1.40 (95% CI: 1.33, 1.47) for unprocessed red meat.

The percentage lower risk of T2D associated with substituting 1 serving/d of nuts and legumes for total red meat was 30% (HR = 0.70, 95% CI: 0.66, 0.74), for processed red meat was 41% (HR = 0.59, 95% CI: 0.55, 0.64), and for unprocessed red meat was 29% (HR = 0.71, 95% CI: 0.67, 0.75).