Meat eating linked to cancer?

Parent Cafe
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I think that is what I was referring too. I think to compensate for boring food, BIL adds a lot of sauces, lots of catchup, and lots of cheese and nuts. He also ate a lot of dessert. The result is he developed diabetes type II from his vegetarian eating habit. I’m sure there are many vegetarians who can eat sensibly, but at least I know one that cannot.
For the record, my family eats an enormous amount of vegetables, my husband and I like fresh fish a lot. But our kids they still like red meat, so that is why meat is still on the menu.</p>

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<p>how about a balanced diet in proper amounts?</p>

<p>Anything will kill you if you overconsume. </p>

<p>even the veggies…;)</p>

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<p>Unfortunately, when becoming vegetarian, many people don’t know how to cook without meat and eat dreadfully boring foods like plain tofu (tofu is wonderful when properly prepared) or they live on rice, beans, and salads.</p>

<p>Actually, you’d be amazed at the huge selection of wonderful vegetarian cookbooks! I have at least 2-3 dozen, and the vast array of selections is dazzling. I could never possibly try them all in this lifetime.</p>

<p>In fact, once vegetarians begin to get acquainted with these new delicious recipes, they find that being a vegetarian is far from boring - they often discover many foods and ingredients that they never even knew existed before. </p>

<p>If you think about, the SAD diet is made up of the same foods, pretty much (let’s see: hamburgers, hot dogs, steaks, chicken, pizza, etc. you know the stuff people eat every day). The vegetarian diet can introduce all sorts of new and delicious foods. If you invest in a few good cookbooks, it’s never boring.</p>

<p>More of the fastfood restaurants are starting have some veggie options, too, like veggie burgers that actually have a lot more flavor than hamburger meat.</p>

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<p>“Vegan diets are much, much lower in fat than the typical SAD (Standard American DIEt).”</p>

<p>Not always. You can’t possibly generalize like that. I know of PLENTY of high-fat diets. And of COURSE not all fats are equal (I get that there are good fats and bad fats, thank you, and I never implied otherwise - and yes, I know about omega fatty acids, trans fats, and all the like) but to generalize that vegan diets are low-fat is just silly - there are a ton of high fat vegan diets.</p>

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<p>Has anyone ever heard of a link between dairy products and cancer?
On one hand women are warned about bone loss, so calcium supplements and/or a few glasses of milk a day seem in order.
On the other hand I have a friend who swears milk should be avoided, and only uses soy products. Also, humans seem to be the only animals that drink milk past babyhood (and it’s not even our own species’ milk). Any thoughts?</p>

<p>Sorry to get off topic, but since we’re discussing these things…</p>

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<p>Tofu? Not he did not eat any tofu. His typical food would be fried potato (not like french fries deep in oil but oven fried with olive oil dripping) eat with catch up and boiled vegetables. So that is why everything is mushy and boring.
I do have a vegetarian cookbook from the chef that used to work at Chez Panisse, Berkeley. Lots of nice recipes, very versatile, but I think very few people can cook vegetarian dish very well. My preference is the type of raw food recipes like the one from Roxanne Klein book. I do beleive once you crank up the heat to cook the vegetables, you destroy a lot of good nutrients. So I slice and munch.</p>

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<p>Today on NPR - Science Friday, there was as interesting discussion about obesity and diabetes epidemic and of course different diets. Apparently saturated fats are not as bad for as we had thought before, going low fat is not going to lower our cholesterol. Atkins is not an answer either, as it perpetrates our insulin metabolism.
My thinking was always moderation - eat everything and move…</p>

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<p>I should have said:</p>

<p>“Vegan diets are GENERALLY much, much lower in fat than the typical SAD (Standard American DIEt), and even when they are similar in fat content (due to a lot of nuts) the quality of the fat is better, and there is no cholesterol being consumed.”</p>

<p>I stand by my (modified) statement. Plant-based foods have lower fat, zero cholesterol, and fiber. Meat is high in fat and cholesterol and has zero fiber.</p>

<p>Even if the rest of their diet is the same, including junk food, etc., just by nature of the fact that the meat has been displaced by plant foods automatically decreases the fat & cholesterol and increases fiber.</p>

<p>If they replace the meat with nuts, then the fat content may be similar, but the quality of the fat is different, and there is still zero cholesterol, and some fiber is being added whereas meat would add no fiber.</p>

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<p>“Don’t forget that life expectancy in India is only 64 years and most Alzheimer’s cases are proved after that age.”</p>

<p>This is the most bizarre use of data to make a point.</p>

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<p>Good question, isp, and related to the topic.</p>

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<p>"I stand by my (modified) statement. Plant-based foods have lower fat, zero cholesterol, and fiber. Meat is high in fat and cholesterol and has zero fiber.</p>

<p>Even if the rest of their diet is the same, including junk food, etc., just by nature of the fact that the meat has been displaced by plant foods automatically decreases the fat & cholesterol and increases fiber.</p>

<p>If they replace the meat with nuts, then the fat content may be similar, but the quality of the fat is different, and there is still zero cholesterol, and some fiber is being added whereas meat would add no fiber."</p>

<p>I never said that vegan diets weren’t healthier - though I think b12 is a serious concern. I never said anything about cholesterol or fiber, but I don’t need a lesson in these things - I’m well versed in them, and as I said, I’m a strict vegetarian.</p>

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<p>Oh, sorry, somehow I missed your post about being a vegetarian…</p>

<p>Glad to hear I’m not the only vegetarian on cc!</p>

<p>I agree B12 is a concern for vegans.</p>

<p>I personally advocate a vegetarian diet, non-vegan, but with egss & organic dairy in moderation. This alleviates any concerns yet retains the health benefits.</p>

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<p>In my own lifetime, we went from “eggs every day; they’re nature’s perfect food” to “don’t eat eggs, the cholesterol will kill you” to “well, eggs aren’t really that bad.” Can’t wait to see what’s new next week.</p>

<p>The problem is not necessarily with these diets or with the studies; the diets may be fine and the studies may be properly conducted. The problem lies with the conclusions that the popular press takes from these studies. No one study “proves” anything. You can argue about this study or that study (although most of the citations here are reports in the popular press, not the studies themselves), but it’s only over time that studies mean anything. What hole do we have in this one that can be plugged by another one? Studies, particularly epidemiological ones like those discussed here, are extremely difficult to interpret and should be interpreted with caution. (I have a degree in epidemiology.) But caution doesn’t sell newspapers or make people tune in at 11. </p>

<p>You want to be a vegetarian? Great. You want to eat meat or follow Atkins? Great. Me - I’m waiting for them to determine that the french fry is the perfect food.</p>

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<p>True - there are so many studies, so many opinions about various diets. As I said previously. you could find some info to back up whatever you choose to believe, there is so much disagreement about diet.</p>

<p>A lot of it is emotionally charged.</p>

<p>Personally, I follow a very simply guideline:</p>

<p>Eat foods in as close to their natural state as possible, as close to what Mother Nature puts on her table, in season, organic if possible…and if something runs, flies or swims aways from you when you try to harvest it, don’t eat it.</p>

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<p>The cookbooks that popularized vegetarian food in the 70’s and 80’s were wonderful, and opened all sorts of new cooking techiniques and food options to the American public. But we were seduced with fat. Lasagne Bechmal, Eggplant parmesan etc. My favorite foods still. But the calorie counts are out of this world. The authors of some of my favorite cookbooks, Anna Thomas and Mollie Katzen realized this, and subsequent cookbooks are far lower in fat. Vegetarian cooking has evolved. </p>

<p>I evolved too, and between the peanut allergy, the antipathy my kids developed for beans and tofu and the dairy allergy, meat slid back into my life to some extent, after years as a mostly vegetarian. On occasion, someone will get concerned-oh, you’re vegetarian? No…I prefer produce, beans and whole grains as a foundation diet, but, will and have, eaten an amazing variety of foods in my time. Variety is fun.</p>

<p>Chevda, your bit about the popular press and the bandwagon effect has been interesting to watch over a lifetime of being involved with the natural food movement. Watching this over decades has lead to a certain disenchantment with the swings in popular nutritional theories. However, I’m quite hearted to find some, if not many of the ‘rules’ I learned from the far out health food nut contingent way back when are now being mainstreamed as the current ‘right’ ideas about diet.</p>

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<p>And just curious-- any theories as to why so many more children now have severe peanut allergies? I never recall hearing anything like that while young.</p>

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<p>“And just curious-- any theories as to why so many more children now have severe peanut allergies? I never recall hearing anything like that while young.”</p>

<p>I guess several reasons: Excessive use of antibiotics while young, parent’s eating habits, pollution. We hear more about them because such kids may not have survived in the past.</p>

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<p>Re: Peanut allergies</p>

<p>I once attended a seminar by Dr. John Taylor regarding ADD/ADHD and he said that peanuts are rotated with cotton, and the pesticides used on the cotton crop are those not approved for use on food crops. The pesticides used on food crops are bad enough, but those not approved for use on food crops are even worse. Consequently, residue from the pesticides stays in the soil and then when they rotate with peanuts, the peanuts get that nasty pesticide residue in the plant.</p>

<p>He believed that this was the explanation for the peanut allergies. He said if you think about it, peanut is a natural food and should not cause allergies, just like whole grain wheat should not. What we’re seeing more and more is people having bizarre allergies to foods that people used to live on. The allergies aren’t natural. The foods are natural, but the high concentration of pesticides is not.</p>

<p>I read in a mainstream magazine, SA Our Kids, about 15 years ago, that toddlers by age 2 have already consumed their entire lifetime’s allotment of pesticides. This is horrifying! And that’s not even taking into consideration possible interactions between multiple pesticides! Nor is it taking into consideration that many environmental pollutants sink to the ground, and small children breathe in more chemicals than adults.</p>

<p>Another reason to avoid meat and non-organic dairy is the hormones. The average age of puberty for girls has been steadily decreasing - it’s been documented that some girls as young 8 (8!!!) are now entering puberty! It’s believed to be because of the hormones in the meat and milk. </p>

<p>Anyway, Dr. Taylor said that peanuts were the ‘filthiest’ food you could eat in terms of pesticides. Unless you buy organic, of course. I don’t know about peanuts, but many people who are allergic to refined wheat can tolerate organic, whole wheat.</p>

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<p>The statement that consumption of red meat is not a cancer risk is simply false. </p>

<p>A study published in JAMA in 2005 involving 148,000 people followed over a 10 year period examined long-term meat consumption in assessing cancer risk and found strong evidence that prolonged high consumption of red and processed meat may increase the risk of cancer in the distal portion of the large intestine.</p>

<p>Diets high in red meat result in higher levels of damage to DNA, leaving the genetic code at greater risk of mutating and causing cancer, compared with vegetarian or higher fiber diets. Specifically, studies have found that n-nitroso compounds, well known carcinogens also present in tobacco, are formed in the large intestine after eating red meat. These compounds are not found after consumption of fish or chicken. </p>

<p>Studies as early as 1996 on the carcinogenesis of colon cancer found that consumption of red meat tripled levels of n-nitroso compounds in the bowel bringing them to ranges similar to that found from tobacco smoke. <a href=“http://carcin.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/17/3/515[/url]”>http://carcin.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/17/3/515&lt;/a&gt;. Similar studies have been replicated at literally dozens of research facilities across the world. </p>

<p>If the added risk of cancer was not enough, red meat consumption is a significant source of added risk for heart disease, the single largest cause of death in the developed world.</p>

<p>One can remain in denial about the added cancer risk from meat consumption, but despite allegations to the contrary by groups with vested interests in continued meat consumption there is essentially no more debate in the scientific community on this issue than there is about the risks asociated with smoking. Just like smoking there is no such thing as a safe level of red meat consumption. The only safe level is total abstinence from red meat consumption. </p>

<p>Unfortunately these unequivocal conclusions run against the interests of many groups, including obviously the meat industry but also the restaurant and fast food industries where meat is the single largest source of revenue. </p>

<p>It is not surprising that the main group challenging the meat-cancer link, the Center for Consumer Freedom, is a front for the tobacco, restaurant and meat industries.
<a href=“http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Consumer_Freedom[/url]”>Center for Consumer Freedom - SourceWatch;

<p>Other organizations such as the various companies promoting high protein (generally meat based), low-carb diets have also been vociferous in their attempts at seeding doubt and confusion in the general public. Next time you read an article questioning the red meat-cancer link, look at the source of the article. </p>

<p>People are free to believe who they want, but in terms of health risk I would rather trust the American Cancer Society, the FDA, the American Medical Association, the American Heart Association, the World Cancer Organizations and dozens of other national and international health and safety organizations rather than Phillip Morris, Atkins, McDonalds or the meat packing industry.</p>

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<p>I don’t know, but this could be anecdote. My cousin died of colon cancer at the age of 49. She has been a vegetarian all her life.</p>