Red meats and processed meats such as hot dogs appear to increase the risk of diabetes, as does a heavily “Western” diet, according to new research released Monday.

U.S. investigators found that people that ate mostly Western foods - including sweets, French fries, refined grains such as white bread, and red and processed meats - were nearly 50 percent more likely to develop diabetes over a 14-year period than people who ate minimal amounts of Western-type foods.

Breaking down the diet into its parts, the researchers found that the more red and processed meats people ate, the more their risk of diabetes increased. For instance, each additional daily serving of red meat increased a person’s risk of diabetes by 26 percent; adding another serving of processed meat upped their chances of the disease by nearly 40 percent.

These findings suggest that people should eat processed meats “as little as possible,” and “very little” red meat, lead author Dr. Teresa T. Fung told Reuters Health.

She explained that when many processed and red meats and other high fat foods are cooked at high temperatures, they form substances that appear to help trigger the development of diabetes.

The study focused on type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the condition that is associated with Obesity.

Currently, the rate of type 2 diabetes is increasing at an “alarming” rate in the U.S., Fung and her colleagues write in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Previous research has suggested that a predominantly Western diet, or one that is high in processed foods, may increase the risk of the disease.

To investigate, the researchers analyzed data on almost 70,000 women who were followed for 14 years. All of the women were diabetes-free at the beginning of the study.

Nearly 2700 women developed type 2 diabetes. Both a Western diet and eating large amounts of red or processed meats increased their risk.

The researchers also found that women who followed a largely so-called “prudent” diet - consisting of high amounts of fish, legumes, fruits, vegetables and whole grains - the risk of diabetes appeared to decrease.

The prudent diet appeared to offer particularly strong protection from symptomatic forms of diabetes, which are typically more advanced than non-symptomatic diabetes.

“So, it may be that the prudent diet is delaying the onset of diabetes, or slowing the progression,” said Fung, based at Simmons College and the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts.

Still another explanation is possible, she added. “It also maybe that those who ate a diet that resembled the prudent pattern may be more health conscious and get check ups more often. Therefore, if they get diabetes, it was diagnosed at the early (and asymptomatic) state.”

SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, November 8, 2004.