Red meat suffered yet another scientific setback when researchers from Harvard’s School of Public Health uncovered a powerful link between eating this “4-legged protein” and a greater risk of type 2 diabetes. For this study, the researchers combined the data from a number of large studies that involved a total of over 400,000 subjects, including 28,228 that developed type 2 diabetes. They determined that eating a single 100 gram daily serving of red meat (about the size of a deck of cards) increased the risk of type 2 diabetes 19 percent. Consuming as little as 50 grams of processed red meat (one hot dog or 2 slices of bacon) daily amped up the risk of type 2 diabetes 51 percent. (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, August 2011)