Los peligros de la carne roja

Red meat + wrong bacteria = bad news for hearts (Ver Nature)

Microbes turn nutrient in beef into an artery-clogging menace.

 By Chris Woolston
La carne roja sin grasa tiene poco colesterol y muchas proteínas. Pero su consumo exagerado puede ser dañino para el sistema cardiovascular. Al parecer la culpa la tiene una bacteria presente en el sistema digestivo que transforma (metaboliza) un nutriente común presente en la carne en otro que puede revertir en placas en las arterias. La presencia de l-carnitina (ojo, que mucha gente la toma como suplemento) eleva los niveles de N- óxido de trimetilamina (TMAO), que puede alterar el metabolismo del colesterol, hacer que éste sea más lento, y dar oportunidad a su acumulación en las arterias



"Lean steak is low in fat and cholesterol and high in protein — qualities normally considered healthy. But eating a lot of it can still cause heart disease. Researchers have now laid the blame on bacteria in the human gut that convert a common nutrient found in beef into a compound that may speed up the build-up of plaques in the arteries. The results are published in Nature Medicine. Co-author Stanley Hazen, head of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, says that the study could signal a new approach to diet and health. In some cases, an individual’s collection of intestinal microbes may be as important to their diet as anything on a nutrition label, he says. “Bacteria make a whole slew of molecules from food,” he says, “and those molecules can have a huge effect on our metabolic processes.”
Consumption of red meat has been found to increase the risk of death from heart disease, even when controlling for levels of fat and cholesterol2. To find out why, Hazen and his colleagues gave the nutrient l-carnitine — found in red meat and dairy products — to 77 volunteers, including 26 who were vegans or vegetarians. One committed vegan even agreed to eat a 200-gram sirloin steak.

Tests showed that consuming l-carnitine increased blood levels of trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO), a compound that, evidence suggests, can alter the metabolism of cholesterol and slow the removal of cholesterol that accumulates on arteries' walls.

But even when they took l-carnitine supplements, vegans and vegetarians made far less TMAO than meat eaters. Faecal studies showed that meat eaters and non-meat eaters also had very different types of bacteria in their guts. Hazen says that a regular diet of meat probably encourages the growth of bacteria that can turn l-carnitine into TMAO". (Artículo original en Nature).