Recent media reports on the connection between red meat
and risk of breast cancer bother me, but not for the reason you may think. I'm
no fan of red meat and there are many reasons to limit your intake of this food.
Red meat can be a source of carcinogenic (cancer-causing) chemicals that are
created when it is grilled, barbecued or cooked at high temperatures. Red meat
can be high in saturated fat, which is linked to greater risk of heart disease
and some types of cancer. Red meat offers very little, if anything, in terms of
cancer-fighting nutrients. And finally, the production of red meat is
resource-intensive and expensive and it results in much greater environmental
damage than producing comparable amounts, calorie-per-calorie, of plant
food.
However, even though you won't find me singing the
praises of red meat, I think recent media reports have given this food a bum
rap. When it comes to health, I may not be a fan of this particular food, but
one thing I am
a fan of is truthful reporting on the science of nutrition and cancer.
And when it comes to health and science reporting, nutrition is one area where
misleading headlines are the norm and hysteria is used to attract attention.
Reports about the wonders of one food and the evils of another abound. And this
is why the recent reports about research findings on red meat and breast cancer
risk bother me.
One headline claims, "Red
Meat/Breast Cancer Connection Cited." Another states, "Breast Cancer Risk Linked To Red Meat, Study Finds."
Within the first few lines of yet another story, you'll find the statement, "But if you're a fan of a steak or ground beef and if you're
a woman it's not only ironic, it's potentially life threatening." If you
take these headlines and this news content at face value, you would believe that
red meat, of any kind and in any quantity, will doom a woman to a future
diagnosis of breast cancer! This sounds like scary stuff, but what is the truth
behind these headlines?
The study on which these headlines are based was
published in the November issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine. The
finding from this study that attracted the most attention is that women who eat
more than 1.5 servings of red meat per day have nearly two times the risk of
breast cancer as compared to women eating 3 or fewer servings of red meat
per week .
To put this in perspective, when you compare women who eat multiple servings of
red meat every day, which includes beef, lamb or pork, to women who eat red meat
just a couple of times per week or not at all, you see a higher risk of breast
cancer in the heavy meat eaters. Is this surprising?
What else is different between these two groups? And how
many women eat red meat multiple times per day, every single day? Do you think
that women who eat a lot of red meat every single day differ in terms of their
other habits when compared to women who rarely or never eat red meat? People who
eat healthfully, including those who eat very little or no meat, often are in
better health for a variety of reasons. They exercise more, they are thinner,
they eat less fat, they visit the doctor more, and they smoke less than people
with an unhealthy diet. Any one of these health habits will reduce risk of
cancer, regardless of the presence or absence of meat in the diet!
The truth is, when you look behind the headlines, it's
not surprising that eating a diet full of red meat is bad for health.
Hundreds of studies tell us that eating a diet in which
the majority of
calories come from plant foods including vegetables, fruit, whole
grains and legumes is an effective way to reduce cancer risk, regardless of
whether that diet contains meat. And if a person's diet does contain a lot of
red meat, it is not likely to contain the abundance of vegetables, fruit, whole
grains and legumes that are known to reduce cancer risk.
The most important point to remember is that there are
many reasons why eating a lot of meat may raise cancer risk. Similarly, there
are many reasons why eating plenty of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and
legumes provides protection against cancer and other diseases. Small amounts of
meat, as part of a total healthy diet, do not appear to increase cancer
risk. However, eating more than a few servings of meat per week and certainly
eating several servings per day, particularly of red meat, heavily cooked meat,
and processed meat is linked with higher cancer risk.
The key is balance: If you want to eat meat, do so in
moderation!
In summary, I don't like red meat, I don't think it's a
healthy food, I don't eat it myself, and I certainly don't encourage people to
eat more of it! But I also don't like scare tactics and misleading headlines.
When it comes to red meat, the recent headlines were unfair and misleading. As
with all things in nutrition, the truth nearly always lies somewhere in the
middle.
Nutritionist Suzanne
Posted
Jan 03 2007, 08:14 PM
by
SuzanneDixon