Funded in part by MatPrat–Norwegian Centre for Consumer Information |Egg and Meat, MatPrat-Norwegian Centre for Consumer Information |Egg and Meat
Processed Meat Intake and Changes in Weight, Waist, Body Mass Index, and Fat Mass: Systematic Literature Review, Meta-Analysis, and GRADE Assessment of Cohort Studies of Adults
Händel MN, Rohde JF, Larsen SC, Sørensen TIA, Heitmann BL
Nutrition reviews · 2 citations
Review labels
Neutral facts our review recorded about how this study was done. They describe method, never whether we like the result.
How it was studied
- Design
- Meta-analysis (indexed by PubMed)
- Studied in
- People
- Main outcome
- Health markers and function
- Intake measured by
- Not stated
Who paid for it
- Funding
- Industry funded
- Nonprofit
- Oak Foundation
- University or hospital
- The Parker Institute, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital
- Industry group
- MatPrat–Norwegian Centre for Consumer Information |Egg and Meat
- Industry group
- MatPrat-Norwegian Centre for Consumer Information |Egg and Meat
- Grants
- Oak Foundation (OCAY-18-774_OFIL)
Based on 4 listed funder(s).
Publication
- Published
- 2025-03-24 · Nutr Rev · vol. 83 · issue 10 · pp. 1827–1842
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Cited
- 2 citations · more than 50% of similar papers · 0.4× the field average
- References
- 54 works
- Access
- Paywalled
- Research areas
- Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact · Nutritional Studies and Diet · Muscle metabolism and nutrition
- Keywords
- Waist, Meta-analysis, Medicine, Body mass index, Cohort study, Systematic review, Confidence interval, Cohort, MEDLINE, Weight management, Demography, Environmental health, Internal medicine, Overweight, Biology
- MeSH
- humans, body weight, body mass index, diet, cohort studies, meat products, adult, middle aged, female, male, waist circumference
5 authors
From DK, CA
- Mina Nicole Händel · correspondingUniversity of Southern Denmark; Frederiksberg Hospital
- Jeanett Friis RohdeFrederiksberg Hospital
- Sofus Christian LarsenFrederiksberg Hospital
- Thorkild I. A. SørensenUniversity of Copenhagen; Novo Nordisk Foundation; Education and Early Childhood Development
- Berit L. HeitmannUniversity of Copenhagen; Frederiksberg Hospital
Abstract
Context
Previous reviews have indicated that abstaining from processed meat may play a part in weight management; however, the certainty of these results has not been assessed systematically.
Objective
We sought to estimate the association between processed meat intake (including studies specifically mentioning "processed meat" and/or listing processed meat items and subsequent change in weight, waist circumference, body mass index (BMI), and fat mass among adults by summarizing evidence of cohort studies.
Data sources
A systematic literature search was performed in Embase and Medline via Ovid (including the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews) from inception to June 2024.
Data extraction
The data were extracted by 2 reviewers independently. The certainty in the estimates was assessed with the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations (GRADE) tool, and the risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane's Risk of Bias in Nonrandomized Studies of Interventions (ROBINS-I) assessment tool.
Data analyses
The search resulted in a total of 2974 potential articles, of which 11 cohort studies (6 unique studies) were eligible for inclusion. Three studies (n = 381 291) were included in the random-effects model of measured body weight, resulting in a summary increase of 0.26 kg/y per 1 daily serving of processed meat (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.03-0.48; τ2: 0.03; I2: 92.95%). Four studies (n = 51 310) were included in the random-effects model of measured waist circumference, resulting in a summary increase of 0.14 cm/y per 1 daily serving of processed meat (95% CI, 0.02-0.26; τ2: 0.01; I2: 81.12%). The certainties of these estimates were low, due to serious risk of bias.
Conclusion
The analyses suggested a very weak association between increased processed meat intake and subsequent increase in measured weight, larger measured waist circumference, increase in self-reported BMI, and an increase in fat mass. However, due to methodological limitations the certainty of these results was low, and cautious interpretation of the results is warranted.
Systematic review registration
PROSPERO registration No. CRD42022335022.
Abstract via Europe PMC. Copyright remains with the authors or publisher.
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