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Replacing one serving of red meat a day
with nuts, beans or whole grains could
sharply lower the risk of heart disease
and cancer, research suggests.
Ditching a 50g serving of red meat
for the equivalent number of calories
from a plant source of protein was
linked to as much as a 50 per cent cut in
the likelihood of somebody dying from
heart disease. The chance of dying of
cancer was also almost halved.
For the average man the changes
tracked by the study could mean re-
placing about 50g of steak with roughly
20g of Brazil nuts or 110g of brown rice.
The study looked at more than
37,000 Americans with an average age
of 50. They were followed for about
eight years each. During that time
about 4,900 died. The researchers took
information about diet and health and
calculated the likely influence of small
changes that substituted sources of
protein derived from plants for meat.
Replacing one daily serving of any
observational. That meant that it could
not prove that swapping meat for nuts,
wholegrains and legumes caused
people to have better health. It may be
that people who ate more of such foods
were more fastidious about caring for
themselves in general, including taking
more exercise.
The results are due to be presented at
a conference of the American Heart
Association this week in Arizona.
A second study looked at replacing a
daily serving of red meat — equivalent
to 150g of steak — with 30g of nuts andI’m just warming up Contenders for Crufts, the world’s largest dog show, arrived at Birmingham NEC yesterday, More than 20,000 will compete until Sunday
Older people who regularly walk,
garden, swim or dance tend to have
bigger brains than their inactive peers,
a study suggests.
Our brains shrink as we grow older.
However, the effect of regular exercise
was found to be equal to four fewer
years of brain ageing.
Researchers used magnetic reso-
nance imaging scans to measure the
brains of people with a range of physical
Exercise slows shrinking of your brain in old age
activity levels. They found that less ac-
tive people had smaller brain volume.
“These results suggest that people
may potentially prevent the effects of
ageing on the brain simply by becoming
more active,” Yian Gu, of Columbia
University in New York, who took part
in the research, said.
The study adds to research suggest-
ing that the best way to fend off cogni-
tive decline is to stay active. Sara Ima-
risio, the head of research at Alzheim-
er’s Research UK, said: “Whether it’sgardening, walking the dog, going for a
swim or hitting the gym, the key to
keeping physically active is to do things
you enjoy and will stick to long term.”
Subjects in the study were judged to
be among the most active if they did
seven hours of low-intensity physical
activity, such as gardening, or two
hours of high-intensity activity, such as
dancing, each week. The least active
people did less than two-and-a-half
hours of low-intensity activity and less
than an hour of high-intensity activity.The research involved more than
1,500 people with an average age of 75.
None had dementia but nearly 300 had
mild cognitive impairment and more
than 400 had a gene that is linked to a
greater risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
The average brain size for inactive
people was 871 cubic centimetres com-
pared with 883 cubic centimetres for
those who were most active. The results
were presented yesterday at the annual
meeting of the American Academy of
Neurology in Toronto.Rhys Blakely
Fox-killing QC in clear
The RSPCA will not prosecute a
barrister who said he had killed a
fox. Jolyon Maugham, QC, 48,
tweeted: “Already this morning I
have killed a fox with a baseball
bat. How’s your Boxing Day
going?” He said the fox had got
caught up in netting protecting
his chickens. He later apologised.
The charity said there was no
realistic prospect of a conviction.Ponds boost birdlife
Restoring farm ponds that have
become overgrown could help
birds as well as wetland wildlife,
research suggests. Many ponds
have been filled in or left
unmanaged but twice as many
bird species and three times as
many birds in total were seen at
restored ponds in Norfolk
compared with overgrown ones,
University College London found.Grenfell cheats jailed
A couple who falsely claimed that
that they were living in Grenfell
Tower on the night it caught fire
have both been sentenced to
more than four years in prison. At
Isleworth crown court Carmel
Daly, 50, and Robert Kenneally,
52, were found guilty of
fraudulently claiming £47,802 for
accommodation, emergency
payments and other services.Jolly Fisherman saved
Skegness’s Jolly Fisherman has
been saved by the council after it
agreed to take on the much loved
mascot. There were fears the
rotund symbol of the Lincolnshire
coast could disappear amid a
shortage of volunteers and
concerns the costume had
become “unhygienic”. The Jolly
Fisherman was designed in 1908
and boosted tourism to the town.Child abuse charges
Only 4.4 per cent of offences
recorded by police as child abuse
result in a charge or summons,
data shows. About 227,500 cases
were recorded in the year to
March 2019, according to figures
from the Home Office, collected
by the Office for National
Statistics. However, the
proportion leading to a charge or
summons fell, from 7.2 per cent of
cases the previous year. Just
under half of the cases did not
progress through the system
because of “evidential difficulties”.A A A B C D E E
E G I I I K K L
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Solutions MindGames in Times
Cryptic clues every day onlineTIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JACK HILLServing of nuts rather than meat
could lower heart and cancer risk
red meat for nuts — without increasing
the number of calories — was linked to
a 17 per cent lower risk of dying of a
heart attack. Replacing one serving of
red meat with the equivalent amount of
whole grains — such as brown rice or
bulgur wheat — cut the risk of dying of
a heart attack in men by half.
“It isn’t enough just to avoid red meat,
it’s also about what you choose to eat in
place of red meat,” Zhilei Shan, a post-
doctoral research fellow at Harvard TH
Chan School of Public Health in
Boston, said.
“Healthy plant proteins like nuts, leg-
umes and whole grains contain more
than just protein — they include other
beneficial nutrients such as healthy
fats, antioxidant vitamins, minerals and
phytochemicals [compounds derived
from plants], which have been asso-
ciated with lower risk of chronic dis-
eases such as diabetes, cardiovascular
disease and some cancers.”
The researchers were confident that
diet changes would benefit people’s
health. However, their study was purelyalso found similar sharp falls in cancer
and heart disease.
“Our findings suggest that even
partial replacement of red meat with
healthy, plant-based sources of protein
could substantially reduce rates of
coronary heart disease,” Laila Al-
Shaar, of the Harvard TH Chan School
of Public Health’s cardiovascular
epidemiology programme, said.
The results come amid evidence that
Britons are eating less meat, for health
and ecological reasons. One recent
study found that more than 800,
people cut back on eating animal prod-
ucts for at least a month last year, con-
tributing to a steep fall in sales of red
meat. Those moving towards a vegan
diet for the first time consumed 3.6 mil-
lion fewer animals in the first six
months of 2019 in the UK, according to
analysis by the charity Veganuary.
Sales of red meat fell more by value
than any other category in supermar-
kets last year, down by £185 million,
according to research by Nielsen.
Leading article, page 29Rhys Blakely Science Correspondent Making the change
For a person who eats about 2,
calories a day the changes might
involve swapping 50g of steak for
roughly:
20g almonds
110g of brown rice (cooked)
150g of broad beans
150g of bulgur wheat