June 15th, 2005

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Science
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Atkins Dieters, Take Note

About a decade ago, I gave up eating red meat. I try to only eat wild seafood and organic chicken. I mostly did it because my girlfriend at the time did, but I also saw (and still see) the ethical and dietary arguments. If it was less trouble, I’d probably be a vegan. It’s just not a red-hot issue for me, hence my lukewarm approach.

Now researchers have discovered that too much red meat may increase your odds of bowel cancer:



Tracking the diets of 500,000 cancer-free people across Europe between the ages of 35 to 70 for five years, cancer researchers discovered a 35% greater risk of developing colorectal cancer among those who ate two or more portions of red meat a day.

A portion is defined as 80 grams, which is about 2.5 oz American meat currency (or ½ portion American). The risk was also higher among those who had a low fiber diet.


I’m always sceptical of these studies, but half a million people is a pretty broad survey group. They may come out next year and say “red meat cures pancreatic cancer”.

Comments: 6 Responses so far

Ryan
June 15th, 2005
5:28 pm

The only issue with these types of studies (which isn’t to discount the findings, but perhaps tack an asterisk on the report) is that this is a statistical study. These are the same studies that give the “eggs are good; oops, eggs are bad” type of reports.

What these studies don’t do is provide a physiological reason why something in meat (or something added to the meat) causes an increased risk of cancer.

They are sobering numbers, however. Hopefully they can determine where the stats come from.

Oh, beef jerky!

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Chris
June 15th, 2005
6:28 pm

Wow, 5 ounces of beef every single day? That’s a lot. I’m not a vegetarian, and I do eat red meat, but not very often. Maybe twice a week.

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Andrea
June 15th, 2005
8:16 pm

“The risk was also higher among those who had a low fiber diet”. They didn’t seem to separate these groups. So is it the red meat or is it what happens when you fill up on beef, gravy, grits and skip the veggies?

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Olaf Gradin
June 16th, 2005
4:53 am

Does the 5oz. daily limit average out, or is that a hard and fast *daily* limit. I’ve never eaten a 5oz. steak in my life. I snear at a 9oz. filet mignon and go for the 12oz. or 16oz. prime rib. Mmmmmm.

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BB
June 16th, 2005
9:13 am

I don’t want to visit your blog uninvited and get all strident or anything (so I won’t), but I respect your general well-informedness, Darren, and would like to suggest a few good resources on the matter:

Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health
http://www.foodpolitics.com/
The author is chair of nutrition and public health at NYU and has sat on USDA food pyramid committees. Her argument is that the multi-billion dollar US food industry funds a lot of questionable studies that get play in the media, and confuse consumers, even though they’re debunked in serious scientific literature. She says that reputable scientic study for the past 40 years has pointed indisputably toward vegginess as healthiness. This was also the conclusion of a friend’s university thesis, but I guess that’s less compelling.

Meet Your Meat (Alec Baldwin video)
http://www.meetyourmeat.com/
A difficult one to watch, but powerful.

Veganism in a Nutshell (Audio)
http://www.goveg.com/feat/listen.html
Covers all the bases.

I’m vegan not really for health but because I grew up on a farm and met pigs, cows, chickens with individual and fascinating personalities. This things-you-didn’t-know-about-farm-animals series is great.
Hidden Lives of….
http://www.goveg.com/feat/Pigslife/experts.asp

And, just for fun, Ingrid Newkirk’s letter to Bill Clinton (posted on her blog)
http://www.ingridnewkirk.com/archives/2005/06/letter_to_bill.html

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Paolo
June 16th, 2005
3:24 pm

I’m not entirely surprised. It makes me think of that old saying… now, how did that go again — ah yes, “too much of a good thing can be bad for you.”

I mean, COME ON! Two or more portions of red meat a day?! Who has that much red meat, every day of every week, of every month, of every year on average? Come to think of it, who eats the equivalent of that every other day, or all in large sittings to make up the difference?

The study is like saying people who drink 200 to 300 glasses of water a week may die. Can we classify this study under “DUH!” please?

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