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."