CHICAGO - The largest study of its kind finds that older Americans who eat large amounts of red meat and processed meats face a greater risk of death from heart disease and cancer.

The federal study of more than half a million men and women bolsters prior evidence of the health risks of diets laden with red meat like hamburger and processed meats like hot dogs, bacon and cold cuts.

Calling the increased risk modest, lead author Rashmi Sinha of the National Cancer Institute said the findings support the advice of several health groups to limit red and processed meat intake to decrease cancer risk.

The findings appear in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine.

Over 10 years, eating the equivalent of a quarter-pound hamburger daily gave men in the study a 22 percent higher risk of dying of cancer and a 27 percent higher risk of dying of heart disease. That's compared to those who ate the least red meat, just 5 ounces per week.

Women who ate large amounts of red meat had a 20 percent higher risk of dying of cancer and a 50 percent higher risk of dying of heart disease than women who ate less.

For processed meats, the increased risks for large quantities were slightly lower overall than for red meat. The researchers compared deaths in the people with the highest intakes to deaths in people with the lowest to calculate the increased risk.

People whose diets contained more white meat like chicken and fish had lower risks of death.

The researchers surveyed more than 545,000 people, ages 50 to 71 years old, on their eating habits, then followed them for 10 years. There were more than 70,000 deaths during that time.

Study subjects were recruited from AARP members, a group that's healthier than other similarly aged Americans. That means the findings may not apply to all groups, Sinha said. The study relied on people's memory of what they ate, which can be faulty.

In the analysis, the researchers took into account other risk factors such as smoking, family history of cancer and high body mass index.

In an accompanying editorial, Barry Popkin, director of the Interdisciplinary Obesity Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, wrote that reducing meat intake would have benefits beyond improved health.

芝加哥信息——一同类研究之中的一项最大研究发现，吃大量红色肉类和加工肉类美国老年人面临更大的死于心脏病和癌症的风险。

这项超过 50 万男性和女性的联合研究，支持以前关于富含红色肉类的饮食例如汉堡包，以及加工肉类例如热狗、熏肉和冷盘的健康风险证据。

在声明增加的危险不大的同时，国家癌症研究所的主要作者 Rashmi Sinha 说，调查结果支持一些卫生团体提出的限制红色肉类和加工肉类的摄入量以减少癌症风险的意见。

这一调查结果刊登在周一的‘内科档案’杂志上。

在这项研究中，10 年以上每天吃相当于四分之一磅汉堡包的男子，具有高百分之二十二的癌症死亡风险以及高百分之二十七的心脏病死亡风险。这是与那些吃极少红色肉类，仅仅每周 5 盎司的人相比较的。

吃大量红色肉类的比吃少量红色肉类的妇女具有高百分之二十的癌症死亡风险和高百分之五十的心脏病死亡风险。

对于加工肉类，大量摄取所增加的风险略低于红色肉类的总体情况。研究人员是通过比较最高摄入量的人们的死亡数和最低摄入量的人们的死亡数与来计算风险增加量的。

食用含有更多白色肉类像鸡肉和鱼肉的人，死亡的风险较低。

研究人员调查了超过 54.5 万年龄 50 至 71 岁的人，调查他们的饮食习惯，然后跟踪了他们 10 年。有超过 7 万人在这段时间内死去。

研究对象是从 AARP （美国退休人员协会）的成员中招募的，一个比其他同样年龄的美国人健康一些的群体。这意味着，这项研究结果可能并不适用于所有的群体，Sinha 说。这项研究依赖于人们的记忆，他们都吃些什么，这可能是有误差的。

研究人员在分析中考虑了其它的风险因素，例如吸烟、家族癌症病史和高身体质量指数。

在附随的一篇社论中，教堂山北卡罗莱纳大学跨学科肥胖中心的主任 Barry Popkin 写道，减少肉类摄入量具有的裨益超出健康状况的改善。