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. 2022 Aug 30;16(8):1187-1196.
doi: 10.1093/ecco-jcc/jjac054.

Meat Intake Is Associated with a Higher Risk of Ulcerative Colitis in a Large European Prospective Cohort Studyø

Catherine Dong  1   2 , Simon S M Chan  3   4 , Prevost Jantchou  1   5 , Antoine Racine  1   2 , Bas Oldenburg  6 , Elisabete Weiderpass  7 , Alicia K Heath  8 , Tammy Y N Tong  9 , Anne Tjønneland  10   11 , Cecilie Kyrø  10 , Bas Bueno de Mesquita  12 , Rudolf Kaaks  13 , Verena A Katzke  13 , Manuela M Bergman  14 , Heiner Boeing  14 , Domenico Palli  15 , Giovanna Masala  15 , Rosario Tumino  16 , Carlotta Sacerdote  17 , Sandra M Colorado-Yohar  18   19   20 , Maria-Jose Sánchez  19   21   22   23 , Olof Grip  24 , Stefan Lindgren  24 , Robert Luben  25 , Inge Huybrechts  7 , Marc J Gunter  7 , Yahya Mahamat-Saleh  1 , Marie-Christine Boutron-Ruault  1 , Franck Carbonnel  1   2
Affiliations

Meat Intake Is Associated with a Higher Risk of Ulcerative Colitis in a Large European Prospective Cohort Studyø

Catherine Dong et al. J Crohns Colitis. .

Abstract

Background and aims: We aimed to investigate the association between protein intake and risk of inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition.

Methods: A total of 413 593 participants from eight European countries were included. Dietary data were collected at baseline from validated food frequency questionnaires. Dietary data were calibrated to correct errors in measures related to each country-specific questionnaire. Associations between proteins [total, animal, and vegetable] or food sources of animal proteins, and IBD risk were estimated by Cox proportional hazard models.

Results: After a mean follow-up of 16 years, 177 patients with Crohn's disease [CD] and 418 with ulcerative colitis [UC], were identified. There was no association between total protein, animal protein, or vegetable protein intakes and CD or UC risks. Total meat and red meat intakes were associated with UC risk (hazard ratio [HR] for the 4th vs 1st quartile = 1.40, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.99-1.98, p-trend = 0.01; and 1.61, 95% CI = 1.10-2.36, p-trend = 0.007, respectively]. There was no association between other food sources of animal protein [processed meat, fish, shellfish, eggs, poultry] and UC. We found no association between food sources of animal proteins and CD risk.

Conclusions: Meat and red meat consumptions are associated with higher risks of UC. These results support dietary counselling of low meat intake in people at high-risk of IBD.

Keywords: Diet; inflammatory bowel disease; meat.

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Conflict of interest statement

AR has received grants from Abbvie, Biogen, Ferring, MSD, Pfizer, Takeda, and Tillots. BO has benefited from grants from Takeda, Pfizer, Ferring, and Celltrion and participated in the advisory boards of Takeda, BMS, Galapagos, Janssen, and Cosmofer. OG has served as a speaker, a consultant and an advisory board member for Ferring, Janssen, Pfizer, and Takeda. SMC has benefited from travel grants from Abbvie and Takeda. FC received speaker fees from Abbvie, Biogen, Ferring, Janssen, MSD, Pfizer, Pileje, and Takeda and participated in the advisory boards of Amgen, Arena, Celltrion, Enterome, Ferring, Janssen, Medtronic, Pfizer, Pharmacosmos, Roche, and Tillotts. M-CB-R received a speaker fee from Mayoli-Spindler and from Gilead. Other authors declare no competing interest. Where authors are identified as personnel of the International Agency for Research on Cancer/World Health Organization, the authors alone are responsible for the views expressed in this article and they do not necessarily represent the decisions, policy, or views of the International Agency for Research on Cancer/World Health Organization.

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