Why Meat Causes Inflammation

The anti-inflammatory effect of plant-based diets is about more than just the power of plants. It’s also the avoidance of animal foods. In my Care2 column last week, Dietary Treatment for Crohn’s Disease, I profiled the extraordinary power of even a semi-vegetarian diet to calm inflammatory bowel disease. We’ve known for 14 years that a single meal of meat, dairy, and eggs triggers an inflammatory reaction inside the body within hours of consumption. This results in a stiffening of our arteries (you can see the arterial response curve in my 4-min. video The Leaky Gut Theory of Why Animal Products Cause Inflammation). Within 5 or 6 hours, the inflammation starts to cool down, but then what happens? Lunchtime! At that point we can whack our arteries with another load of animal products for lunch. In this routine, we may be stuck in a chronic low-grade inflammation danger zone for most of our lives. This can set us up for inflammatory diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers one meal at a time.

What exactly is causing the meat-induced inflammation? Inflammation is an immune response to a perceived threat, but what’s the body attacking? At first, scientists thought it might be the animal protein, which is thought to be the culprit in certain types of arthritis. However, similar inflammatory reactions were triggered by whipped cream, which is mostly just animal fat. After digging deeper, investigators discovered that after a meal of animal products one’s bloodstream becomes soiled with bacterial toxins known as endotoxins. No wonder there’s so much inflammation! But where are the endotoxins coming from?

Endotoxins come from bacteria. Where are there lots of bacteria? In our gut. Thus, researchers figured that maybe the saturated animal fat was causing our gut lining to become leaky, allowing our own bacteria to slip into our blood stream. Experiments on mice showed that indeed saturated fat made their guts leaky, so for years this was the prevailing theory as to why animal products caused inflammation within hours of consumption. Only recently did researchers realize this didn’t make any sense.

In my 2-min. video The Exogenous Endotoxin Theory, I illustrate the critical flaw to the leaky gut theory: the time scale. The rise in inflammation after a meal of meat, dairy, and eggs starts within just an hour of ingestion, but our gut flora aren’t in our small intestine–rather, twenty feet farther down in our large intestine. It can take food hours to get down there, so what was going on? If the bacterial endotoxins were not coming from our gut, maybe they were coming from the food.

For the first time ever, 27 common foodstuffs were tested and they found endotoxin equivalents in foods such as pork, poultry, dairy, and egg products, as well as certain fermented foods. Can endotoxins be cooked out of the meat? Find out in today’s NutritionFacts.org video pick (see above).

Saturated fat also appears to have other deleterious effects such as increasing the risk of heart disease (see Blocking the First Step of Heart Disease and Tolerable Upper Intake of Zero) and shortening the lives of breast cancer survivors (Breast Cancer Survival, Butterfat, and Chicken). For more on foods that fight inflammation, see my videos Fighting Inflammation in a Nut Shell and Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Purple Potatoes.

In health,
Michael Greger, M.D.

Image credit: woodleywonderworks / flickr

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Malgorzata Z.

12:44PM PST on Feb 25, 2013

Tak, zgadzam się z tym, tylko że ja nie jem mięsa, a cierpię na stany zapalne stawów.

February 25
send a green star

Kevin S.

8:16AM PDT on Aug 4, 2012

ive already read that one...

August 4
send a green star

MarilynBusy W.

6:40AM PDT on Aug 4, 2012

I gave the link....go back and look for it.
You just confirmed that you haven't bothered reading what I've written so that's why you keep repeating yourself.

8:12PM PDT on Aug 3, 2012

@MarilynNOFWDS T.

Id like to know more about the whole hexane thing. Could you give me a link?
All ive known so far is that the use of hexane is prohibited in the processing of organic foods.

August 3
send a green star

11:56AM PDT on Aug 3, 2012

Some info about omega 3 vs 6 ....and sources
AVOID soy!

http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/mod_print_view.cfm?this_id=2490659&u=vitalchoiceseafood&show_issue_date=F&issue_id=000604392&lid=blnGnR3&uid=b5gGl7bQ

8:21PM PDT on Aug 2, 2012

got cut off:
There are tasty organic meat alternatives that are made of soy, wheat, legumes or vegetables. Some taste EXACTLY like meat, some just taste good and some of course dont taste so good.

August 2
send a green star

8:19PM PDT on Aug 2, 2012

Whats the point of posting the same comments that I have refuted before, again?
Either you dont read my comments or you dont read them, because if you would have read them, you wouldnt still promote eating meat.
Here we go again:
There is nothing that I can only get from meat. Sure, organic meat has protein, vitamins and minerals, but it also comes with active hormones, cadaveric poison, animal protein, high amounts of saturated fat, cholesterol and contains no fiber.
I can get protein, vitamins and minerals from plants, without consuming active hormones, cadaveric poison, animal protein, high amounts of saturated fat (a few plants do have high amounts) and cholesterol.
Plants contain fiber, antioxidants, phytochemicals. Meat does not.
This is what the largest organization of food and nutrition professionals in the world says about veganism:
"It is the position of the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian and vegan diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases."

Did I mention before that livestock produces 40 percent more Co2 than all of the cars, ships, trucks, planes and trains combined? Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

There are tasty organic meat alternatives that are made of soy, wheat, legumes or vegetables. Some taste EXACTLY like meat, some just taste g

Dale O.

8:25AM PDT on Jul 31, 2012

Those who enjoy eating a plant based diet, go for it. Those who enjoy adding a bit of organic meat to the diet enjoy, I will. Have no interest in the endless debate of if man was "designed" to eat plants or be an omnivore. Man by choice is versatile and adapts. Just keep a balanced organic diet in mind and also the body honed by exercise. The mind also loves challenges and learning new and fascinating subjects sharpens the mind.

One can try food that are also new to you, so many fascinating veggies, fruits to try. But watch out for the Durian fruit as some airlines won't even let you carry it on board. It is... how can one put it...carries an odour all its own. So does Limburger cheese or Stinking Bishop but we all like to experiment at least once be it a new exotic fruit, a tasty meat or delightful Kasha!

Some say we shouldn't even eat wheat but unless you are gluten tolerant who can resist whole grain bread?

July 31
send a green star

Sorry that should have read unless one is gluten intolerant one can enjoy lovely whole grain bread. Anyone try bread fruit, that is great as well!

Yes Kevin, you are too overly concerned about how our body works "best", but there are so many diverse studies and differing pieces of research on what is "best."

So what if it is a small amount of meat? It is tasty and delightful for those of us who enjoy meat, poultry or fish. We like it.

I'd be more worried about all the GMO produced veggies and fruits Monsanto is throwing at the populace and in many countries this doesn't even have to be labelled so if one wishes to avoid it at the grocery store...unless one goes organic.