Thread: Lean beef OK for certain diets: study

Lean beef OK for certain diets: study
By Andrew M. Seaman ~ source

(Reuters Health) - People using a diet centered on fruits and vegetables to lower their cholesterol may be able to introduce lean beef and get similar results, suggests a new study.

The findings, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, are similar to those of past research that found red meat may be fine in moderation. The new study, while small, was uncommonly well controlled, with participants' diets closely monitored.

"It isn't all that different from what people were saying," said Dr. Elizabeth Jackson, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Michigan Health Systems, who was not involved in the study.

"It was very well done, and that is one of the things that are difficult with nutrition science," said Jackson. "You could never do data like this on thousands of patients."

The new research followed 36 people with high cholesterol as they ate four different diets for five weeks each.

Penny Kris-Etherton, a professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Pennsylvania State University in University Park, and her colleagues closely monitored the men and women between late 2007 and early 2009.

Of the four eating patterns followed by the participants in different stages of the study, the "healthy American diet" allowed for more oils, saturated fat and refined grains compared to the "DASH" diet based on fruits and vegetables, and two other diets that each included lean cuts of beef. But all diets had about the same number of calories.

To make sure each person stuck to the regimens, participants in the study ate one meal a day at Penn State's Metabolic Diet Study Center between Monday and Friday. The rest of the meals were also prepared by the Center and packed to be eaten later.

At the outset, the mean LDL, or "bad," cholesterol for the group was 139 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) and mean total cholesterol was 211 mg/dL. Those are considered borderline-high numbers according to the National Institutes of Health's standards. The group's mean HDL, or "good," cholesterol was 52 mg/dL, which is about the recommended amount.

Compared to the healthy American diet, which slightly raised cholesterol, the vegetable- and fruit-based DASH diet and the diets including lean beef lowered LDL and total cholesterol to a mean of 129 and 200 mg/dL, respectively.

The diets also slightly lowered the group's mean levels of "good" cholesterol, which the researchers said can be explained by the fact that saturated fat raises HDL.

The lean beef diets were lower in saturated fat than an average American diet, which contains more full-fat cheese and butter.

The beef diets included between 4 and 5.5 ounces a day of lean meats, primarily in the form of top round, chuck shoulder pot roast and 95-percent-lean ground beef. Meats were grilled, braised, or in the case of ground beef, fried.

The study was jointly funded by Penn State and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

Joan Salge Blake, a clinical associate professor at Boston University's Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and an Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics spokesperson, said it's important to make sure a person watches their entire diet.

"I think it's really important that the public understands that and is not going to go hog-wild with beef," said Salge Blake.

"We just have to make sure that the portions stay lean and small, and that it's a part of a heart-healthy diet," Salge Blake told Reuters Health.


STUDY

Beef in an Optimal Lean Diet study: effects on lipids, lipoproteins, and apolipoproteins1,2,3

Michael A Roussell,
Alison M Hill,
Trent L Gaugler,
Sheila G West,
John P Vanden Heuvel,
Petar Alaupovic,
Peter J Gillies, and
Penny M Kris-Etherton

+ Author Affiliations

1From the Departments of Nutritional Sciences (MAR, AMH, SGW, and PMK-E), Statistics (TLG), Biobehavioral Health (SGW), and Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences (JPVH), The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA; the Lipid and Lipoprotein Laboratory, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Oklahoma City, OK (PA); and Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health, New Brunswick, NJ (PJG).

+ Author Notes

↵2 Supported by the Beef Checkoff Program and the General Clinical Research Center, Pennsylvania State University (NIH grant M01RR10732).

↵3 Address correspondence to PM Kris-Etherton, Department of Nutritional Sciences, 119 Chandlee Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802. E-mail: pmk3@psu.edu.

Abstract

Background: A Step I diet with lean beef compared with lean white meat both decrease LDL cholesterol. To our knowledge, no studies have evaluated a low–saturated fatty acid (SFA) (<7% calories) diet that contains lean beef.

Objective: We studied the effect on LDL cholesterol of cholesterol-lowering diets with varying amounts of lean beef [ie, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH): 28 g beef/d; Beef in an Optimal Lean Diet (BOLD): 113 g beef/d; and Beef in an Optimal Lean Diet plus additional protein (BOLD+): 153 g beef/d] compared with that of a healthy American diet (HAD).

Design: Thirty-six hypercholesterolemic participants (with LDL-cholesterol concentrations >2.8 mmol/L) were randomly assigned to consume each of the 4 diets (HAD: 33% total fat, 12% SFA, 17% protein, and 20 g beef/d), DASH (27% total fat, 6% SFA, 18% protein, and 28 g beef/d), BOLD (28% total fat, 6% SFA, 19% protein, and 113 g beef/d), and BOLD+ (28% total fat, 6% SFA, 27% protein, and 153 g beef/d) for 5 wk.

Results: There was a decrease in total cholesterol (TC) and LDL-cholesterol concentrations (P < 0.05) after consumption of the DASH (−0.49 ± 0.11 and −0.37 ± 0.09 mmol/L, respectively), BOLD (−0.48 ± 0.10 and −0.35 ± 0.9 mmol/L, respectively), and BOLD+ (−0.50 ± 0.10 and −0.345 ± 0.09 mmol/L, respectively) diets compared with after consumption of the HAD (−0.22 ± 0.10 and −0.14 ± 0.10 mmol/L, respectively). Apolipoprotein A-I, C-III, and C-III bound to apolipoprotein A1 particles decreased after BOLD and BOLD+ diets compared with after the HAD, and there was a greater decrease in apolipoprotein B after consumption of the BOLD+ diet than after consumption of the HAD (P < 0.05 for both). LDL cholesterol and TC decreased after consumption of the DASH, BOLD, and BOLD+ diets when the baseline C-reactive protein (CRP) concentration was <1 mg/L; LDL cholesterol and TC decreased when baseline CRP concentration was >1 mg/L with the BOLD and BOLD+ diets.

Conclusions: Low-SFA, heart-healthy dietary patterns that contain lean beef elicit favorable effects on cardiovascular disease (CVD) lipid and lipoprotein risk factors that are comparable to those elicited by a DASH dietary pattern. These results, in conjunction with the beneficial effects on apolipoprotein CVD risk factors after consumption of the BOLD and BOLD+ diets, which were greater with the BOLD+ diet, provide support for including lean beef in a heart-healthy dietary pattern. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00937898.

Study Source

Originally Posted by Prince

The study was jointly funded by Penn State and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.