Eating lots of animal protein appears to raise women's risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Inflammatory bowel disease is a collective term for diseases characterised by severe inflammation in the digestive system that can attack the entire digestive tract such as ulcerative colitis, which typically only affects the colon. IBD affects about one in 500 people. Diet composition has long been suspected to contribute to IBD, but has not been thoroughly assessed. To investigate whether diet might be a factor, researchers followed more than 67,581 French women, aged between 40 and 65 years. During follow-up of around 10 years, just 77 of the women developed inflammatory bowel disease. Ninety percent of women in the current study were eating more than the recommended dietary allowance of protein.
It was found that women who consumed the most protein were at more than triple the risk of being diagnosed with IBD; animal protein accounted for most of the risk. Risk was specifically associated with high intake of meat and fish, but not with dairy products or eggs.
The researchers noted that meat could contribute to inflammatory bowel disease risk because digestion of animal protein produces many potentially toxic end products, such as hydrogen sulfide and ammonia. Also a high-protein diet could alter the mix of bacteria that live in the colon.
Given the large amount of protein women in the study were eating, a restricted diet wouldn't involve radically reducing protein intake, but instead sticking to the recommended amount.
Inflammatory bowel disease is a collective term for diseases characterised by severe inflammation in the digestive system that can attack the entire digestive tract such as ulcerative colitis, which typically only affects the colon. IBD affects about one in 500 people. Diet composition has long been suspected to contribute to IBD, but has not been thoroughly assessed. To investigate whether diet might be a factor, researchers followed more than 67,581 French women, aged between 40 and 65 years. During follow-up of around 10 years, just 77 of the women developed inflammatory bowel disease. Ninety percent of women in the current study were eating more than the recommended dietary allowance of protein.
It was found that women who consumed the most protein were at more than triple the risk of being diagnosed with IBD; animal protein accounted for most of the risk. Risk was specifically associated with high intake of meat and fish, but not with dairy products or eggs.
The researchers noted that meat could contribute to inflammatory bowel disease risk because digestion of animal protein produces many potentially toxic end products, such as hydrogen sulfide and ammonia. Also a high-protein diet could alter the mix of bacteria that live in the colon.
Given the large amount of protein women in the study were eating, a restricted diet wouldn't involve radically reducing protein intake, but instead sticking to the recommended amount.