Meat

Meat was one of the topics addressed at the Practicum last week, where Rashmi Sinha from NCI (who is mentioned in the article below) presented.

Daily Red Meat Raises Chances of Dying Early

Basically what I remember from last week is that the more red meat you eat, the higher the risk of cancer there was. Very well done meat was associated with a higher risk of colorectal adenomas than well done, which was riskier than rare/medium. This is because cooking the meat produces carcinogens such as heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons such as benzo[a]pyrene. In order of cancer risk: grill/BBQ gives the highest risk, followed by frying, other methods, baking, and finally broiling.

Red meat overall was associated with more adenomas than eating white meat.

Red meat also has saturated fat, which is associated with breast and colorectal cancers - and is associated with more cardiovascular disease and hypertension.

So ethical and environmental issues aside, for all intensive nutrition purposes, don't eat red meat. To quote Michael Pollan, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

Introduction

I am currently attending the National Cancer Institute's Nutrition & Cancer Prevention Research Practicum (March 16-20, 2009). They're presenting some really great material and I can't wait to share it with you. But basically, there are some excellent nutrients in food that can prevent cancer and a whole host of other diseases. And it's better to get the nutrients from FOOD, not supplements. Many nutrients have toxicity levels that are harmful to the body - more of a good thing isn't always better, sometimes more can be too much. And besides, when you consume the nutrients as part of the food that nature meant for them to be in, you can be sure they are working synergistically with other nutrients & compounds to produce an effect on the body you wouldn't get if you just consumed the nutrient alone. But there are many differences between which nutrients in foods are beneficial/detrimental for cancers - depending on the type of cancer.

Stay tuned!