English beef association responds to meat and cancer claims
30/10/2015
“IARC isn’t saying eating red and processed meat as part of a balanced diet causes cancer: no single food causes cancer,” said Maureen Strong, a nutrition manager at AHDB. “Nor is it saying it’s as dangerous as smoking. IARC has said that the risk from processed meat remains small.
“The government looked at the same evidence in 2010 and recommended people eat no more than 70g of red and processed meat a day: and that’s exactly what the vast majority of us are eating. The government has already said that this advice is not changing. IARC’s findings suggest that eating 50g of processed meat brings a small increase in risk. However, average consumption in the UK is just 17g per day. People would need to eat three times their current levels to increase their risk.
“Red and processed meat plays an important role in a balanced diet, providing protein, iron, zinc and B vitamins. There’s no evidence that removing meat from your diet protects against cancer. In fact a major, long term study by Oxford University has shown no difference in colorectal cancer rates between meat eaters and vegetarians.”
The report said there was enough evidence to rank processed meats as group 1 carcinogens because of a causal link with bowel cancer.
Share this story:
