Red meat increases risk of high blood pressure - study

 A man sells roasted meat in Namawojjolo, Mukono District recently. Health minister Christine Ondoa says communities with high levels of red meat consumption have a high prevalence for high blood pressure. 

Kampala Uganda,

If you are the kind who consumes a lot of red meat, health experts are warning you that you could develop high blood pressure. According to the Journal Nature Medicine Study, 70 grammes of red or processed meat a day -- the equivalent of two slices of bacon is recommended.

Red meat comprises beef (cow and goat’s meat) and mutton. Speaking at the media centre in Kampala yesterday, the Minister for Health, Dr Christine Ondoa, said statistics indicate that communities with high levels of red meat consumption also had a high prevalence for high blood pressure. “Wakiso District, which is more of an urban setting has a 32 per cent prevalence of high blood pressure; Kasese which is a rural setting has 23 per cent prevalence,” she said.

“Seventy per cent of stroke cases seen at Mulago National Referral hospital are as a result of high blood pressure and 50 to 60 per cent medical out-patients at Mulago have high blood pressure,” Dr Ondoa told journalists.
But data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation shows that Uganda’s per capita meat consumption lingers just above 11 kilogrammes per person per year in the past five decades.

The president of the Uganda Veterinary Association, Dr Dominic Mundrugo, advised the public to resort to white meat.
“People should therefore substitute red meat with white meat such as chicken and rabbit. However, they have to remove the chicken skin because this contains a lot of cholesterol and this might also lead to high blood pressure,” Dr Mundrugo said.

A recent study in the Journal Nature Medicine indicates that carnitine, a chemical found in red meat, is bad for the heart. The US-based scientists that came up with the findings experimented on mice and people and found out that bacteria in the gut could eat carnitine.

“Carnitine was broken down into a gas, which was converted in the liver to a chemical called TMAO which is strongly linked with the build-up of fatty deposits in blood vessels, which can lead to heart disease and death.”