A new study has claimed that regularly eating red meat could increase the risk of death from heart disease and cancer.

The new study at the Harvard Medical School says that intake of red meat can shorten the life expectancy. The study claimed that each extra daily serving of processed red meat increased mortality rate by a fifth.

The study involving more than 120,000 people increased the risk of diseases like cancer and heart problems. Researchers also found that the substituting red meat with fish, chicken or nuts decreased the risks to the people.

Experts at the British Heart Foundation pointed out that the red meat can be eaten but only as part of a balanced diet. As part of the study, the researchers studied data from 37,698 men between 1986 and 2008 and 83,644 women between 1980 and 2008 to arrive at the results.

The researchers found that the addition of unprocessed red meat to someone's daily diet could increase the risk of death by 13per cent, of fatal cardiovascular disease by 18 per cent and of cancer mortality by 10per cent. On the other hand, the risk level of processed meat was 20 per cent for overall mortality, 21 per cent for death from heart problems and 16 per cent for cancer mortality.

The report read, "We found that a higher intake of red meat was associated with a significantly elevated risk of total, cardiovascular disease, and cancer mortality. This association was observed for unprocessed and processed red meat with a relatively greater risk for processed red meat."