Red meat contains numerous
vitamins and minerals that are essential for a healthful, balanced diet. In
recent years, however, its reputation has been severely blemished, with studies
suggesting that red meat intake can increase the risk of cancer and other
diseases. But is it really that bad for us? We investigate.
Red meat
is defined as any meat that comes from mammalian
muscle. This includes beef, lamb, pork, goat, veal, and mutton.
For many
households, red meat is considered a food staple, with some of us consuming
beef, lamb, and pork in different variations on a daily basis.
Last year, the
average person in the United States is estimated to have consumed around 106.6 pounds of red meat. Although this might
appear a high intake, it is a significant reduction from the average 145.8
pounds consumed per capita in 1970.
Over the past
10 years alone, red meat consumption has fallen by around 10 pounds per person,
with 2014 seeing the lowest intake of red meat since 1960, at just 101.7 pounds
per person.
But why are so
many of us cutting down on red meat?
A shift toward
plant-based foods
According to a
2016 Harris Poll, approximately 8 million
adults in the U.S. are vegetarian or vegan, with concerns about
animal welfare being the driving factor.
However, it
seems that millions more of us are opting for plant-based foods over meat-based
products because we believe that they are more healthful. The 2016 Harris Poll
found that 37 percent of U.S. adults "always" or
"sometimes" eat vegetarian meals when eating out, with 36 percent of
these citing health reasons for their choice.
A number of
studies have suggested that when it comes to health, a plant-based diet is the
way to go. In December 2016, a position paper from
the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics claimed that a plant-based diet can
lower the risk of type 2 diabetes by 62 percent,
as well as reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.
"If you
could bottle up a plant-based prescription, it would become a blockbuster drug
overnight," commented paper co-author Susan Levin, of the Physicians
Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, D.C.
It is not only
the health benefits associated with plant-based diets that are steering us away
from red meat, however, but the health risks that might arise from eating red
meat. We take a look at what some of these risks are.
Cancer
When it comes
to red meat intake, cancer is perhaps the most well-established
health implication.
In October
2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a report concluding that red meat is
"probably carcinogenic to humans," meaning that there is some
evidence that it can increase the risk of cancer.
Additionally,
the WHO concluded that processed meats - defined as "meat that has been
transformed through salting, curing, fermentation, smoking, or other processes
to enhance flavor or improve preservation" - is "carcinogenic to
humans," meaning that there is sufficient evidence that processed meat
intake increases cancer risk.
To reach these
conclusions, the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)
Working Group reviewed more than 800 studies assessing the effects of red and
processed meats on various types of cancer.
They found that each 50-gram portion of processed meat - which
primarily includes pork or beef - consumed daily increases the risk of
colorectal cancer by 18 percent.
The IARC also
uncovered evidence of a link between red meat intake and increased risk of
colorectal, pancreatic, and prostate
cancers.
It is thought
that cooking red meats at high temperatures - through frying or barbecuing, for
example - is what contributes to an increased cancer risk.
According to
the National Cancer Institute - a part of the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) - cooking meats at high temperatures can lead to
the production of heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are chemicals that have been shown to increase
cancer risk in animal models.
However, the
report from WHO concluded that the role of HCAs and PAHs in human cancer risk
is not fully understood, and from their review, there
was not enough data to determine whether the way meat is cooked influences
cancer risk.
Kidney failure
Kidney failure
- whereby the kidneys are no longer able to filter waste products and water
from the blood - is estimated to affect more than 661,000 people in the U.S.
Diabetes and high blood
pressure are among the most common causes of kidney failure, but in July 2016,
one study suggested that red meat intake might be a risk factor.
Published in
the Journal of the
American Society of Nephrology, the
study reported a dose-dependent link between red meat
consumption and risk of kidney failure. For example, participants who were in
the highest 25 percent of red meat intake were found to have a 40 percent
increased risk of kidney failure, compared with those in the lowest 25 percent.
"Our
findings suggest that these individuals can still maintain protein intake but
consider switching to plant-based sources; however, if they still choose to eat
meat, fish/shellfish and poultry are better alternatives to red meat,"
says study co-author Dr. Woon-Puay Koh, of the Duke-NUS Medical School in
Singapore.
Source: Medical News Today
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