Posted Jan. 25, 2008 –  Too much meat leads to serious health problems.

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Otherwise-healthy adults who eat two or more servings of meat a day – the equivalent of two burgers – increase their risk of developing metabolic syndrome by 25 percent, compared with those who eat meat twice a week, according to research published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Metabolic syndrome is a group of symptoms – including high blood pressure, high blood sugar and obesity that, together, are indicators of diabetes, heart attack and stroke.  It's not just meat that adds inches to the waist, increases blood pressure and lowers HDL – "it's fried foods as well," said Lyn M. Steffen, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., co-author of the study and an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota .

Dairy products, on the other hand, appeared to offer some protection against metabolic syndrome.

Fried foods are typically synonymous with commonly eaten fast foods, so I think it is safe to say that these findings support a link between fast-food consumption and an increase in metabolic risk factors.

The findings come from an analysis of dietary intake by 9,514 participants in the Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities (ARIC) study. ARIC is a collaborative study funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.