So-called probiotic yoghurts might help counteract the impact of eating red meat on the heart, researchers said yesterday.
The conclusions come from a detailed analysis of how compounds in red meat affect the body.
Researchers said it might be possible to develop treatments to reduce the effect of meat on heart health.
But they warned of nutritional supplements that contain one compound, gamma-butyrobetaine, identified in the research as being an off-shoot of reactions between meat and microbes in the gut.
Researcher Dr Stanley Hazen, of the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, USA, published new findings about the role of red meat in the journal Cell Metabolism.
His study showed how bacteria in the gut convert a substance found in red meat, L-carnitine, into compounds which promote hardening of the arteries.
This pin-pointed gamma-butyrobetaine as one of the compounds created in the gut. A second is trimethylamine – which has previously been identified.
Dr Hazen said: "While this is into the future, the present studies may help us to develop an intervention that allows one to ‘have their steak and eat it too’ with less concern for developing heart disease."
British experts warned that the saturated fats found in meat also pose a threat to the heart.
Victoria Taylor, of the British Heart Foundation, said: "This research is still at a very early stage and is based on mice, so it’s difficult to say whether the same effects would apply to humans."
Cell Metabolism 4 November 2014 [abstract]
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