Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Jul 20;9(7):638.
doi: 10.3390/antiox9070638.

Can Meat and Meat-Products Induce Oxidative Stress?

Adrián Macho-González  1 , Alba Garcimartín  2 , María Elvira López-Oliva  3 , Sara Bastida  1 , Juana Benedí  2 , Gaspar Ros  4 , Gema Nieto  4 , Francisco José Sánchez-Muniz  1
Affiliations
Review

Can Meat and Meat-Products Induce Oxidative Stress?

Adrián Macho-González et al. Antioxidants (Basel). .

Abstract

High meat and meat-products consumption has been related to degenerative diseases. In addition to their saturated fatty acids and cholesterol contents, oxidation products generated during their production, storage, digestion, and metabolization have been largely implicated. This review begins by summarizing the concept of meat and meat-products by the main international regulatory agencies while highlighting the nutritional importance of their consumption. The review also dials in the controversy of white/red meat classification and insists in the need of more accurate classification based on adequate scores. Since one of the negative arguments that meat receives comes from the association of its consumption with the increase in oxidative stress, main oxidation compounds (malondialdehyde, thermaloxidized compounds, 4-hydroxy-nonenal, oxysterols, or protein carbonyls) generated during its production, storage, and metabolization, are included as a central aspect of the work. The review includes future remarks addressed to study the effects meat consumption in the frame of diet-gene interactions, stressing the importance of knowing the genetic variables that make individuals more susceptible to a possible oxidative stress imbalance or antioxidant protection. The importance of consumed meat/meat-products in the frame of a personalized nutrition reach in plant-food is finally highlighted considering the importance of iron and plant biophenols on the microbiota abundance and plurality, which in turn affect several aspects of our physiology and metabolism.

Keywords: meat; metabolism; oxidation; oxidative stress.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Possible metabolic fate of dietary altered compounds. The scheme illustrates the different body pathways for eliminating those altered products observed. *secondary products included short- or medium-chain alkyl group, carbonyl, hydroxyl, aldehyde, ester, epoxy, carboxyl, etc. +Aducts include HNE adducts and HNE conjugates. 4-HNE, 4-hydroxy-nonenal; AGEs, advanced glycation end-products; CAT, catalase; GPx, glutathione peroxidase; GR, glutathione reductase; HDL, high-density lipoproteins; HNE, hydroxynonenal; HO, heme oxygenase; LDL, low-density lipoproteins; MDA, malondialdehyde; Ox, oxidized; SOD, superoxide dismutase; Tg, triglycerides; TMAO, trimethylamine N-Oxide; VLDL, very low density lipoproteins.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Tentative scheme relating storage and cooking oxidative processes in meat and the production/elimination of radical oxygen species (ROS). It is detailed (1) Oxidized compounds that can be generated in meat during storage and cooking. (2) Some intracellular mechanisms involved in ROS formation, oxidative damage, and possible elimination through the antioxidant machinery. (3) TMAO formation after choline and L-carnitine metabolism by the gut microbiota and subsequent oxidation in the liver. 4-HNE, 4-hydroxy-nonenal; AGEs, advanced glycation end-products; CAT, catalase; GPx, glutathione peroxidase; GR, glutathione reductase; GSH, reduced glutathione; GSSG, oxidized glutathione; H2O2, hydrogen peroxide; LOO•, lipid peroxyl radical; MDA, malondialdehyde; RAGE, receptor for AGEs- advanced glycation end-products; ROS, radical oxygen species; SOD, superoxide dismutase; TMA, trimethylamine; TMAO, trimethylamine N-Oxide.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Oxidation compounds formation according to the cooking and storage method. (A) Results of the MDA formation in beef steaks with low and medium fat content subjected to different cooking methods. (B) Oxidation compounds formation in preserved meat in chilling or frozen storage. Modified from Serrano et al. [62] and Librelotto et al. [64]. With Meat Science permission solicited and still pending.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Di Renzo L., Gualtieri P., Romano L., Marrone G., Noce A., Pujia A., Perrone M.A., Aiello V., Colica C., De Lorenzo A. Role of personalized nutrition in chronic-degenerative diseases. Nutrients. 2019;11:1707. doi: 10.3390/nu11081707. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Celada P., Bastida S., Sánchez-Muniz F.J. To eat or not to eat meat. That is the question. Nutr. Hosp. 2016;33:177–181. doi: 10.20960/nh.29. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Celada P., Sánchez-Muniz F.J. Are meat and meat product consumptions harmful? Their relationship with the risk of colorectal cancer and other degenerative diseases. An. Real Acad. Nac. Farm. 2016;82:68–90.
    1. Johnston B., Zeraatkar D., Han M., Vernooij R., Valli C., Dib R., Marshall C., Stover P., Fairweather-Taitt S., Wójcik G., et al. Unprocessed red meat and processed meat consumption: Dietary guideline recommendations from the nutritional recommendations (NutriRECS) consortium. Ann. Intern. Med. 2019;171:756–764. doi: 10.7326/M19-1621. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Hill A.B. The environment and disease: Association or causation? Proc. R. Soc. Med. 1965;58:295–300. doi: 10.1177/003591576505800503. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources