Are you eating your way to diabetes?

You may want to cut down on the intake of lamb, beef, pork and poultry as they can give you diabetes.

Researchers from Duke-NUS Medical School (Duke-NUS) in Singapore found that the higher intake of red meat and poultry is associated with significantly increased risk of developing diabetes, which is partially attributed to their higher content of heme iron in these meats.

The consumers of red meat were 23% likelier to develop diabetes whereas those who consume poultry products are at a risk of 15%.

Senior author Koh Woon Puay said, "We don't need to remove meat from the diet entirely. Singaporeans just need to reduce the daily intake, especially for red meat and choose chicken breast and fish/shellfish, or plant-based protein food and dairy products, to reduce the risk of diabetes."

The team analysed 63,257 adults aged 45-74 years between 1993 and 1998 and then followed them up for an average of about 11 years.