The Truth About Meat + Inflammation (and why organic agriculture doesn’t make a difference)
Have you heard of meat causing inflammation? On today’s episode of The Sitch, we’re uncovering the truth about meat and inflammation.
Everyone talks about inflammation, but most people don’t really understand what it even is.
Let me briefly explain. Inflammation is the body’s natural protective response to a variety of stressors, including infection or injury. Its job is to control and resolve tissue damage. The immediate signs are heat, pain, redness and swelling – all important for the body’s repair and defense.
However, chronic inflammation is an inappropriate or insufficient response to stressors that is never resolved. Chronic inflammation has been linked to a laundry list of conditions including type II diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular disease, frailty, sarcopenia, osteoporosis, and cancer.
While we know that inflammation plays a role in these conditions, we really don’t know if inflammation causes these diseases or if these diseases result in inflammation. It’s a real chicken and the egg situation…..which consequently relates to what we’re talking about today – the association between animal products, but meat in particular, and inflammation.
What’s most ironic is that the same people tossing around the buzzy word “inflammation” and telling you to cut out things like soy and gluten are often the same people encouraging you to up your meat consumption – but grass-fed, of course – insert eye-roll.
The truth is – it doesn’t matter how your meat was raised or produced or if your cow lived a happy life with lots of hobbies and an extensive social circle – there are compounds naturally found in animal products or created during production that increase their inflammatory profile. These things exist in all meat regardless of organic agriculture.
Studies show that red meat intake is associated with higher levels of inflammatory markers like c-reactive protein (CRP), even when controlling for other dietary and lifestyle factors. Meanwhile, a high intake of whole grains reduces CRP.
Today I’m going to talk about three main culprits driving the association between meat and inflammation.
HOW MEAT CAUSES INFLAMMATION
1. TMAO
TMAO, aka trimethlyamine oxide – not that you need remember that – is a molecule linked to cardiovascular disease, an inflammatory condition.
TMAO is produced in the body from dietary carnitine. Carnitine is found in animal muscle tissue. It is not an essential nutrient for human consumption, as our own bodies make it.
When we eat carnitine, our gut bacteria breaks it down into a molecule called TMA, which is then converted by our liver to TMAO. Studies show that vegans and vegetarians produce less TMAO from carnitine than omnivores, suggesting that the regular consumption of meat changes our microbiome to a pro-atherogenic profile.
2. Advanced glycation end products (AGEs)
AGEs are reactive molecules found naturally in food and also formed in the body by the reaction of carbohydrates with proteins and fats. You can actually see this reaction occur when meats are browned – it’s known as the Maillard reaction.
Blood levels of AGEs correlate to markers of inflammation such as c-reactive protein, fibrinogen, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, vascular adhesion molecule-1, and the HOMA index – an indicator of insulin resistance.
While AGEs are found in both animal and non-animal foods, diets high in protein and fat have higher amounts of AGEs than high carbohydrate diets, likely due to an increased intake of meat, poultry, and cheese – which are the main sources of these harmful molecules.
The amount of AGEs found in these products is further increased by dry heat cooking methods like grilling and frying. On the other hand, fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, and low-fat milk products are the lowest sources of dietary AGEs.
Studies show that AGEs are elevated in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), which is associated with low-grade inflammation. Women with PCOS who eat a low-AGE diet have more favorable metabolic and hormonal profiles and less oxidative stress.
Here are a few ways to reduce AGEs in your diet:
- Consume more plant-based sources of protein.
- If you are going to consume meat or poultry, opt for high moisture cooking techniques and use lower heat.
- Use acidic marinades like vinegar and lemon juice.
The last factor in the association between meat and inflammation is saturated fat.
3. SATURATED FAT
Saturated fat is found primarily in meat and animal products and in plants like coconuts, palm oil, and chocolate. If you’re one of the people who bought into the paleo-propagated idea that all saturated fat is healthy, I’d encourage you to check out my video: the truth about coconut oil.
As for saturated fat and inflammation, studies show that a single high-saturated fat meal immediately increases inflammation and oxidative stress, resulting in restriction of blood vessels and an increase in blood pressure.
It’s also shown to immediately raise triglycerides in the blood, which further contributes to oxidative stress and inflammation and increases the adverse effects of post-meal hyperglycemia. Basically, if having a sugary glass of orange juice detrimentally spikes your blood sugar, enjoying it with a sausage egg McMuffin takes the inflammatory process to the next level.
Which brings me to the elephant in the room – refined carbohydrates. Unlike some pro-plant experts, I’m not going to stand here and tell you that meat is the sole culprit of chronic inflammation.
A wealth of information exists showing that high-glycemic, refined carbohydrates are associated with increased inflammation and likely compound the problem of a high-fat, meat-heavy diet. Refined carbohydrates include sugar, candy, sweets, white processed flour products, and fruit juice.
HOW TO PREVENT INFLAMMATION
Bottom line: Both vegan and omnivorous diets can contain inflammatory foods, but to suggest that meat is anti-inflammatory is a bunch of bull. As discussed, meat naturally contains compounds associated with inflammation – whether or not the meat is organic, grass-fed, or table-fed. ;)
To fight inflammation, focus on a diet rich in whole grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, fruits and vegetables, which have all been shown to contain anti-inflammatory compounds and reduce the risk of inflammation-related chronic diseases.
If you’re interested in moving toward a more plant-based diet, check out my free 7-day predominantly plant-based meal plan.
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Weigh in: Would you consider eating more plant-based to ward off inflammation? If you’ve already cut back or eliminated meat, have you noticed any differences?
Karen says:
I went vegetarian at age 14, then vegan at 25. I was vegan through three pregnancies, and thought I and my kids were healthier for it. Then my third was born with a severe carnitine deficiency, which led to six months of testing and fears that he had a metabolic disorder. Then I was tested, and they found that my carnitine level was ZERO. Did you know that your body only makes carnitine if it has the proper amino acids, such as lysine, which you get from eggs or chicken? Babies in utero do NOT make their own carnitine, they get it from their mothers, and so when my son was born he was screened for and mis-diagnosed with carnitine uptake deficiency. Apparently years of a vegan diet, and pregnancy, had stripped my body of all my carnitine reserves. I would strongly urge women of childbearing age to take carnitine supplements if they choose to go vegan. It was a nightmare for us. We went back to an omnivorous diet and are healthier for it.
Steven says:
Hi! Would you mind linking to the studies you referenced? I would be interested in reviewing them.
Thank you
Robert says:
trimethlyamine?
Robert says:
Avoid Carnitine & Lecithin Supplements
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/carnitine-choline-cancer-and-cholesterol-the-tmao-connection/
Jim says:
When this author says that grass fed beef is not anti-inflammatory ands that it is just as inflammatory as regular beef is a crock of nonsense. They need to educate themselves much more. It’s a shame they haven’t while being in healthcare.
Here is a recent study:
Inferring the health impacts of dietary patterns from epidemiological studies is problematical due to multiple confounding factors, many of which are not known or taken into account (116), including how the phytochemical diversity of herbivore diets affects the biochemical characteristics of meat and milk. Epidemiological studies that find inverse associations between eating red meat and health do not distinguish between meat from livestock fed high-grain diets in feedlots and livestock foraging on phytochemically rich mixtures of plants. Nor do they address how herbs, spices, vegetables, and fruits eaten in a meal with meat can enhance health.
Epidemiological studies that find inverse associations between eating red meat and health do not distinguish between meat from livestock fed high-grain diets in feedlots and livestock foraging on phytochemically rich mixtures of plants. Nor do they address how herbs, spices, vegetables, and fruits eaten in a meal with meat can enhance health.
Phytochemical richness may be one reason why people have decidedly lower post-prandial inflammatory responses when they eat the meat of kangaroos foraging on diverse mixtures of native plants (a traditional hunter-gatherer meat meal) than when they the eat meat of wagyu cattle fed high-grain diets in feedlots (a modern meat meal) (123). Eating any food causes a transient post-prandial inflammatory response (124–126), and when people eat meat and fat, protein oxidation and lipid peroxidation cause inflammation (127). Yet, when herbivores eat phytochemically rich diets, compounds in their diets protect meat and dairy from the protein oxidation and lipid peroxidation that cause inflammation (128–130).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6434678/
MB says:
Did you just call chocolate a plant? :)
ZM says:
You should really check if the papers you’re using as evidence actually backup your claims… I mean the study linked to show the red meat/whole-grain affecting C-reactive protein levels gives laughable P values for the red meat association (has to be below 0.05 to even start to be considered significant).
Also, TMAO is LINKED, not a cause or even a surefire diagnostic marker, to cardiovascular disease. TMAO itself actually is eliminated very efficiently from the body and is not widely distributed amongst tissues.
Also your point on advanced glycated endproducts? Only a small portion even gets absorbed into the bloodstream (I think its in the region of 10-30%)
Dee says:
I really don’t like this article. It’s not really informative or scientific. I have been a vegetarian most of my life and would love to be vegan. However, my body reacts with inflammation to most plant-based protein sources except nuts and seeds. I can’t tolerate soy (both organic and not), dairy, eggs, legumes, beans, quinoa and amaranth. I love eating veggies, I don’t like eating meat but I have much better health when I eat a little meat with my meal and around 70-90% veg on my plate. I feel better now than I did 15 years ago. It only took 4 weeks of eating that way to feel better. What I used to eat was a good vegetarian diet with mostly veg, some sugar, some grains (mostly wheat), dairy and eggs. I tried reintroducing the vegan protein sources twice but they flare up my arthritis in hours. Also, most arthritis is seronegative which makes serum markers for inflammation pretty irrelevant.
Jeremy Barton says:
I can’t even pretend to fully (or partially) understand the science and studies being referenced here and in other articles. But I can say that after just 4 days of a strict plant-based diet, my chronic knee and Achilles tendonosis was virtually gone. I have just as much if not more energy, and feel like I actually eat a little bit less compared to my previous animal protein heavy diet. So studies or no studies, my environmental decision to go plant based has also had positive physical results.