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Meat causes cancer

The promoters of vegetarianism and other heath conscious advocates have been saying this for decades. The WHO has little credibility except on tropical diseases in poor countries. Beef raised organically and range fed eaten in moderation just cant be bad for you. Now processed foods with nitrates puts up a red flag for me. I avoid them..
 
I asked my gastro, Robert Bleicher, North Jersey Gastro, this same question last year when I had my 4th colonoscopy in the past 15 years or so, and he said NO, red meats do not increase the chance of colon cancer. I do not have colon cancer, but they seem to always find a polyp or 2 so I'm cautious and go every 3 years. I did not ask him about 'processed' meats however, but I'd imagine he would have mentioned it if he though processed meats do increase the chances. He is always listed as a top Gastro (for whatever that's worth) in the NJ magazines.
I do not know what to make of this current report, which seems to be on the news and online all day long.
 
George Carlin said it's caused by drinking small amounts of water over long periods of time.
 
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People say life's too short, but in reality it's the longest thing you'll ever do.
 
Everything in moderation. Small amounts of red meat are probably ok but large amounts not so much. The regions of the world with the healthiest people who live the longest are not known for chowing down on gigantic pieces of red meat on a daily basis.
 
I asked my gastro, Robert Bleicher, North Jersey Gastro, this same question last year when I had my 4th colonoscopy in the past 15 years or so, and he said NO, red meats do not increase the chance of colon cancer. I do not have colon cancer, but they seem to always find a polyp or 2 so I'm cautious and go every 3 years. I did not ask him about 'processed' meats however, but I'd imagine he would have mentioned it if he though processed meats do increase the chances. He is always listed as a top Gastro (for whatever that's worth) in the NJ magazines.
I do not know what to make of this current report, which seems to be on the news and online all day long.
These are not studies demonstrating causation. They show correlation which now might lead to some double blind randomized studies that can test hypotheses about casuation, but setting up such a study for food consumption could prove very challenging if not impossible.
 
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It is always hard to study the health effects of one specific food with longitudinal studies because you cannot strictly control what people eat and other foods they eat might have an effect on the food you are trying to study. A person who eats tons of red meat alongside lots of vegetables might get a very different result from someone who always eats cheetos or fries with red meat. This is why I think the most valid studies on food are those that look at the healthiest people around the world and just give general guidelines on how to eat.
 
When you cannot do a randomised study to investigate something (randomisation almost completely eliminates alternative hypotheses to the one being studied), you have to rely on proxies. One would be correlational or observational studies, such as the ones used here. Another is animal studies. Then, you need to understand the mechanisms which produce the effects that you are observing.

In this case, what has been found is that eating a lot of red meat will make your colon cancer chances go from about 5 in 100 to about 6 in 100. There are a couple of competing hypotheses on what is causing this, but they are both within the bounds of reason. Neither has to do with where you get your meat from. Free range, yoga-practicing cows are no better than chain smoking cows.

So yes, best evidence suggests that there is a linkage, but the increased level of danger is relatively small (depending on what you consider to be small).
 
The trick to being healthy is that there isn't a trick.

There are countries that eat a TON of red meat like Argentina, I mean way more than the US and they don't seem to have anymore cancer than anyone else.

Quick tips: Moderation is your friend and become more physically active.

Beef raised organically and range fed eaten in moderation just cant be bad for you. Now processed foods with nitrates puts up a red flag for me. I avoid them..

I would hope that people are smart enough to know that grass fed free range beef is healthier than meat in a can.
 
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I think breathing the air in NJ, and just standing around and getting radiated all the time (lots of RF in the environment nowadays) will do it eventually.
 
Like others have said, moderation. I eat steak maybe once a week and fish twice. Pork once a week and the rest of the time poultry.
 
Why avoid nitrates?
They have been used for 1000's of years in the curing and preservation of meats, which has helped people survive to this day.
 
The trick to being healthy is that there isn't a trick.

There are countries that eat a TON of red meat like Argentina, I mean way more than the US and they don't seem to have anymore cancer than anyone else.
.

Well, sure, Argentina doesn't seem to have any more cancer than anyone else. Unless you look at the statistics that show it to have one of the highest colon cancer rates in the world.
 
Why avoid nitrates?
They have been used for 1000's of years in the curing and preservation of meats, which has helped people survive to this day.
Theoretically nitrates turn into nitrosomines in the presence of amino acids(meats) and can become carcinogenic.Pop a Vit. C tablet when you indulge in the processed meats. Should straighten things out.
 
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Refrigeration eliminates the need for nitrates unless you want your meat to be able to last longer than your car...stomach cancer rates dropped significantly after refrigerators were invented because of a drop in eating nitrate laden or salted meat.
 
The release sure seems designed to sensationalize when you see that they lumped eating processed meats with smoking and asbestos (and of course our idiot press came through with the unthinking way they trumpeted the headlines).

This release says eating processed meat causes a 17% increase in the chance of someone getting colon cancer. A lifelong smoker is 25 TIMES more likely to get lung cancer than a non-smoker.

17% and 2500%. Those things deserve to lumped in the same harmful category, right?
 
I have been eating a steak about once every seven days, with very little meats in between..... I could cut it back to every 2 weeks, just wondering if the once a week sees a rise in cancer rates that would make me cut back further
 
If they're both deemed carcinogenic than they do deserve to be put in the same category. It's just that one substance is far more carcinogenic than the other. In the end it's always about quantity. A high salt diet increases the chances of stomach cancer--therefore salt could be considered carcinogenic. Japan suffers high rates from a seafood filled diet. But most people don't eat nearly enough salt for it to be an isdue
 
My layperson understanding isn't that fresh red meat is carcinogenic, it's that people who eat a lot of it are therefore not eating enough health promoting foods instead, as here:

Indigestible compounds common to veggie roughage facilitate more rapid gut lining cell Turnova and replenishment with new cells. Red meat tends to bind you, if you know what I mean, such that lining cells don't sluff off as frequently and the cell turnover cycle is slower allowing cancerous cells to eventually take hold somewhere in the colon.

Maybe a doc out there could refute.,
 
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My layperson understanding isn't that fresh red meat isn't carcinogenic, it's that people who eat a lot of it are therefore not eating enough health promoting foods instead, as here:

Indigestible compounds common to veggie roughage facilitate more rapid gut lining cell Turnova and replenishment with new cells. Red meat tends to bind you, if you know what I mean, such that lining cells don't sluff off as frequently and the cell turnover cycle is slower allowing cancerous cells to eventually take hold somewhere in the colon.

Maybe a doc out there could refute.,

I am no doctor but you are pretty close to the truth there. Studies have shown that people who ate meat but also ate a lot of fiber from veggies didn't have the same cancer rates. So in other words, make your steak smaller and your salad a lot bigger and you should be fine. Also eat more chicken :)

People too much meat and not enough veggies which is the real problem.
 
Good. Maybe the price of beef will start to come back down to Earth. Enjoy your skinless boneless hormone-filled Perdue chicken breast tenders.
 
Theoretically nitrates turn into nitrites in the presence of amino acids(meats) and can become carcinogenic.Pop a Vit. C tablet when you indulge in the processed meats. Should straighten things out.

Not sure how true it is but besides processed or salted/cures meats, nitrates are also increased in smoked meats. Sucks if you like BBQ like I do, but I get around to eating brisket only once every 2-3 months anyway.
 
Anything cooked or processed can be sketchy since new compounds are made in process and body isn't always prepared to handle them.
This hysteria is still a PC thing though. NPR backed off equating meat with tobacco. Lots of things much more dangerous and they are kept quiet.
I fell guilty when I char sausage and peppers on the grill. Now I'm even more concerned reading peppers can cause chlamydia.
 
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When you cannot do a randomised study to investigate something (randomisation almost completely eliminates alternative hypotheses to the one being studied), you have to rely on proxies. One would be correlational or observational studies, such as the ones used here. Another is animal studies. Then, you need to understand the mechanisms which produce the effects that you are observing.

In this case, what has been found is that eating a lot of red meat will make your colon cancer chances go from about 5 in 100 to about 6 in 100. There are a couple of competing hypotheses on what is causing this, but they are both within the bounds of reason. Neither has to do with where you get your meat from. Free range, yoga-practicing cows are no better than chain smoking cows.

So yes, best evidence suggests that there is a linkage, but the increased level of danger is relatively small (depending on what you consider to be small).

Do you have a link that the 17% increase means the numbers go from approximately 5/100 to 6/100 in absolute terms?
 
Well, sure, Argentina doesn't seem to have any more cancer than anyone else. Unless you look at the statistics that show it to have one of the highest colon cancer rates in the world.
That's because the tango causes colon cancer.
 
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