Test Red meat can cause cancer

How does nutrition affect cancer risk??

There has been considerable debate for some time about how the consumption of red meat affects human health. Of course, there are people who have been eating red meat for many years without experiencing negative effects. However, there are critics who believe that red meat causes considerable harm to the human body. Researchers have now found that eliminating red meat in diets significantly reduces cancer risk.

The scientists from the University of Leeds and the University of the Basque Country in Spain found in their recent study that eating red meat greatly increases the risk of cancer, especially the risk of a specific type of colorectal cancer. The experts published their findings in the English-language journal "International Journal for Cancer".

Researchers analyze the data of 32,147 women

In the study, physicians examined the effect of eating red meat, poultry, fish and vegetarian diets on the risk of developing colon and rectal cancer. To do this, the researchers collected data from 32,147 women aged 35 to 69 in England, Wales and Scotland who participated in the UK Women's Cohort Study. On average, the participants were medically monitored over a period of 17 years. After assessing women's diet, the researchers looked at four common eating habits.

Participants were divided into four groups

Subjects were considered vegetarians if they consumed red meat, poultry or fish less than once a week. As fish eaters, participants were defined who took fish at least once a week, but did not eat poultry and red meat. Subjects from the group of poultry eaters consumed poultry once a week, were allowed to eat fish, but did not eat red meat. Consumers of red meat were defined as those who consumed meat at least once a week and possibly also consumed poultry and fish. The red meat was beef, pork, lamb, offal and processed meat.

Red meat increases the risk of developing distal colorectal cancer

When investigating the association between each type of diet and the risk of cancer, the researchers found that people who regularly consume red meat had higher rates of distal colon cancer compared to people who did not consume red meat.

Which types of cancer increase the risk??

Previous research has already shown that high intake of red or processed meat can increase cancer risk. For example, a report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in 2015 showed that the consumption of processed meat increases the risk of colon and rectal cancer as well as pancreatic and prostate cancer. For this study, the results of a total of 800 studies from around the world were analyzed. (As)