Nutritional Pearls: Red Meat with a DASH Diet?

Thomas is a 37-year-old clinically obese man with hypertension. He has recently begun following The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet to help lower his blood pressure, but is having a hard time giving up red meat, which he eats on a regular basis.

How would you advise your patient?
(Answer and discussion on next page)

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Answer: It is not necessary to cut out all red meat in order to eat a healthy diet.

With today's knowledge that processed meats are much more dangerous to your health than red meat (beef, pork, or venison), one can hardly blame the National Pork Board for creating its "Pork. The other white meat" advertising campaign (1987-2011).

The National Pork Board continues to fund research into pork products, as in today's study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
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The Research

The authors recruited 19 clinically obese men and women to participate in a crossover feeding study: An initial 6-week period consuming a test diet followed by 4 weeks in which they consumed their usual diet, then another 6-week period consuming a second test diet.

The comparison diets were both DASH-style diets that aimed to provide about 2500 milligrams of sodium per day and the appropriate amount of calories for the participants to maintain their body weight. The difference was that for one 6-week period, the participants consumed the vast majority of their animal protein in the form of chicken and fish, and in the other, the main animal protein was pork in the form of pork tenderloin and fresh, uncured, and well-trimmed ham. Both diets permitted the participants to consume 2 servings of lean beef per week.

The Results

The authors compared the starting and ending blood pressures of all participants on both diets. The data showed that both diets resulted in an equivalent decrease in participants' blood pressures. Further testing revealed that total cholesterol decreased more when the participants were following the DASH diet (which included pork) as opposed to the DASH diet, which included only chicken and fish.

On the other hand, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (the good cholesterol) decreased in those following the pork diet, while HDL increased in those following the chicken and fish diet.

What’s The “Take Home”?

The most obvious drawback to this study is its funding, but its tiny size does not help, either. Regarding the cholesterol results, the authors note that the study was not primarily designed to assess cholesterol changes and note that those results should be interpreted "with caution." The study does, however, support the notion that one need not cut out all red meat in order to eat healthy.

Reference:
Sayer RD, Wright AJ, Chen N, Campbell WW. Dietary approaches to stop hypertension diet retains effectiveness to reduce blood pressure when lean pork is substituted for chicken and fish as the predominant source of protein. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2015;102(2):302-308.