Wednesday a report on a major study into the link between red meat consumption and the risk of bowel cancer is published, as reported by the BBC
The headline result is that those eating two 80g portions of red meat a day are one third more likely to develop bowel cancer than those eating less than one portion a week. A McDonald’s quarter pounder by definition contains 110g of beef. The nutritional information is not available on the US site to give the weight of the beef patty but clearly with only 50g to play with you are not going to have a very big portion before you go over the “high consumption” figure.
I have just given the “2 McDonalds” as an example but clearly anyone eating an 8oz steak each day falls into the same risk category. Low dietary fiber also increases the risk of bowel cancer.
Those burgers also increase likelihood of heart & stroke disease.
I can’t imagine eating 2 eight ounce steaks every day. I don’t think I eat that much red meat in a month. And I thought I loved red meat.
The 2 x 80g works out a total of about 5 and a half ounces. One 8oz steak far exceeds that and the extra risk increases progressively as consumption goes up.
How many people eat 6 oz of beef each and every day? Hamburger or steak every day? Isn’t that a little boring? don’t you mix in poultry and fish? those digest a little more quickly… You could eat that much beef if you just made sure you had enough veggies and fiber and exercise to move it through the system quicker. You’d be safe from the bowel cancer but then you’d have to worry about the heart attack.
Although I gave the examples, the term “red meat” in this context includes lamb and pork. Processed meats are also included in this “high risk” group.
The 35% increased risk is the comparison between those who eat one or less portion a week and those who eat “over” 2 portions a day. Low fiber in the diet is an additional risk so this increased risk assumes the standard recommended amount of dietary fibre. If you read the linked article you will see the causal factor appears to be material found in the red meat naturally and is not dependant on the time the food remains in the gut.
Although this is a large scale epidemeological study (500,000 sunjects studied), I am not sure if the data have yet been processed to see if the risk increases proportionately to the amount eaten, using one portion a week as a base, or if there is a threshold amount.