A daily hamburger might raise the risk of developing heart disease, but not necessarily for the reasons people often think, new research suggests.
The study of nearly 4,000 older Americans found what many have before: People who ate a lot of red meat had a heightened risk of heart disease and stroke.
But there was no evidence that the link was due to a traditional culprit: elevated blood levels of “bad” cholesterol.
Instead, researchers traced the risk, in part, to particular substances produced by the gut microbiome — the trillions of bacteria that reside in the digestive tract. When those bacteria digest red meat, they produce a chemical called TMAO, which can spur inflammation and blood clotting….