WHO claims eating meat can increase risk of cancer
Print Edition
EATING processed meats increases the risk of developing colon cancer, and red meat “probably” does too, the World Health Organization said yesterday, as the meat industry and nutritionists challenged its claims.
The analysis of 800 studies from around the world by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer found “sufficient evidence in humans that the consumption of processed meat causes colorectal cancer.”
For an individual, the risk of getting cancer from eating processed meat was statistically “small,” the agency said, but “increases with the amount of meat consumed.”
“Each 50 gram portion of processed meat eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18 percent,” it claimed.
The category includes meat that has been salted, cured, fermented or smoked — hot dogs, sausages, corned beef, dried meat like beef jerky or South African biltong, canned meat or meat-based sauces.
The finding supports “recommendations to limit intake of meat,” the agency said.
“In view of the large number of people who consume processed meat, the global impact on cancer incidence is of public health importance,” it said in a statement.
For unprocessed red meat — beef, veal, pork, lamb, mutton, horse or goat — the review found “strong” evidence of a cancer-causing effect, but not sufficient to place it in the same group of cancer-causing agents as tobacco smoke, asbestos, and now processed meat.
As for processed meat, the red meat risk was mainly for cancer of the colon and rectum, but also the pancreas and prostate, the report said.
The agency cited research attributing about 34,000 cancer deaths a year worldwide to diets high in processed meat. That number is dwarfed by the estimated 1 million cancer deaths a year due to tobacco smoking, 600,000 from alcohol use, and 200,000 due to air pollution, the agency said.
Meat producers slammed the report, as independent experts urged caution in interpreting the numbers.
The North American Meat Institute said the IARC “tortured the data to ensure a specific outcome.”
“Followers of the Mediterranean diet eat double the recommended amount of processed meats. People in countries where the Mediterranean diet is followed, like Spain, Italy and France, have some of the longest lifespans in the world and excellent health,” said Betsy Booren, NAMI’s vice president of scientific affairs.
British nutrition expert Elisabeth Lund said: “Meat is a good source of iron and zinc, and many women are short of these ... Iron is much more ... available from meat than from vegetables or supplements.”
According to Ian Johnson, a Britain-based nutrition researcher, “there is little or no evidence that vegetarians ... have a lower risk of bowel cancer than meat-eaters.”
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