According to polls, it is the third most popular sandwich in Britain, just behind tuna mayonnaise and cheese.
But a shocking new analysis may make ham sandwich lovers rethink their lunch, given its striking link to deadly type 2 diabetes.
According to research from the University of Cambridge, which looked at 31 studies involving 2 million people over a ten-year period, eating two slices of ham a day increases the risk of a blood sugar spike by 15 percent.
It wasn’t just ham; eating 100 grams of red meat (the equivalent of a small steak) increased the risk of diabetes by 10 percent. Links were also found with chicken, albeit weakly.
Experts have now criticised the paper, published in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, claiming it ‘fails to demonstrate’ that red meat causes type 2 diabetes.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge did not specify how many years you need to eat ham daily to see an increased risk of diabetes. That is a flaw in the study.
Dr Duane Mellor, a dietitian and spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association, said there was “a lack of data” in the studies analysed.
Although the authors took into account a number of other factors that could also explain the damage, such as BMI, smoking and alcohol consumption, they did not take into account other factors that are ‘strongly associated’ with the risk of diabetes.
This includes According to Dr. Mellor, several factors influence health: family history, insulin resistance and waist size.
‘It is possible that the increased risk associated with processed and red meat consumption is due to these other confounding factors that could not be accounted for in the analysis.’
Another problem, experts say, is that the analysis did not distinguish between the quality and type of meat.
“An example of processed meat is the Parma ham and prosciutto you buy in high-end shops. These are likely to be made with fewer preservatives than the highly processed cuts of meat you see in the supermarket,” says Dr Giles Yeo, an obesity expert at the University of Cambridge.
He adds: ‘The research highlighted a slightly increased risk of diabetes if you eat chicken every day, but we don’t know how that chicken was prepared.
Eating a small steak every day is also said to be linked to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.
“The authors did not distinguish between fried chicken and home-cooked roast dinners. It may be that there is something in the cooking process that is behind the link, rather than the meat itself.”
The authors are also not entirely sure how long you have to eat ham or steak daily before you see an increase in diabetes risk.
“It’s probably going to take a couple of years, maybe even 10,” Dr. Yeo says. “Very few people eat two slices of ham every day for 10 years.”
Experts have long been aware of the health risks of processed red meats, such as ham and bacon. Several studies have linked high intakes to colon cancer and diabetes.
According to Dr. Yeo, the link is caused by a combination of factors, such as the high amount of saturated fat in meat products and the presence of substances called nitrates.
Diabetes is now a ‘rapidly escalating crisis’ in the UK as the number of people with the condition is expected to exceed five million for the first time
This chart shows how much meat Britons buy on average each week. Data for 2022 shows a huge drop compared to historic levels (data excludes fish)
Nitrates are natural substances added to processed meat during the preservation process.
Research has shown that they can mix with substances in the gut, causing reactions that can damage the body’s cells.
“The truth is, we’re not really sure why this association exists,” says Dr. Yeo.
While he says the study confirms “what we already know” about the health risks of processed meat, we shouldn’t “hyperventilate” over the findings.
It is important to keep your balance.
‘For many people, meat is an important part of their daily diet, and processed meat has a longer shelf life.
‘Eating most foods in large quantities carries risks.’
In October, researchers at Harvard University used data from 200,000 people to show that regularly eating more than one serving of red meat per day can increase the risk of diabetes by as much as 50 percent.
However, part of this can be explained by the fact that people who eat a lot of meat are also more likely to be overweight.
Study participants who ate large amounts of red meat ate People who generally consumed more calories and were less physically active, compared to people who ate the least red meat.
“We found that about half of the excess risk from eating red meat is due to being overweight,” said study leader Dr. Walter Willett of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.
But there was still an increased risk [of developing diabetes] even when body weight is taken into account.’