When thinking about overall health, does eating meats processed or unprocessed make a difference? A new study just out from Harvard School of Public Health might offer some insight. While there has been an association made between meat consumption and things like colon cancer, this is study attempts to clarify risk (though in this case of heart disease and diabetes) even further by separating meats – processed or unprocessed.

For this study, researchers looked at over 20 other studies and 1,218,380 individuals from many countries. What they found was that on average, each 50 gm daily serving (1.8 oz) of processed meat (a couple of slices of deli meat or 1 hot dog) was associated with a 42% higher risk of developing heart disease and a 19% higher risk of developing diabetes. On the other hand, eating unprocessed red meat was not observed to be associated with a risk of developing either heart disease or diabetes.

Processed meats includes things like deli meats, sausage, bacon, hot dogs and pre-made meatballs. Basically, you want to avoid meats that have had anything (sodium or preservatives like nitrates) added to them. Levels of  sodium and preservatives are believed to be the two things that separate the processed meat from the unprocessed meat. Saturated fat on the other hand, appears to be about equal in the two so apparently, the fat is not what makes the risk for heart disease and diabetes increase in this case.

So choose organic meats with no preservatives and grass fed beef. The closer you can keep your meats to natural and “clean,” the better you will be. When eating meats, processed or unprocessed does matter.