The World Health Organization (WHO) is now confirming what health experts and nutritionists have been claiming for years: processed meat causes cancer. In addition, red meat, including lamb, veal, beef, and pork is likely to be carcinogenic.
The Organization`s statement is based on the evidence obtained by a team of 22 scientists. After reviewing a series of studies, including comprehensive literature on colon cancer issued in 2011 by the World Cancer Research Fund- the team of scientists found that eating red and processed meat causes a 16% increased risk of cancer per 100g. The study suggests that the elevated risk includes prostate cancer, prostate cancer, and pancreatic cancer.
According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the new evidence puts processed and red meats-including bacon, sausage, and store sandwich meat- into the same category as tobacco and asbestos, the “group 1” carcinogen. On the other hand, the study doesn’t mention organic sources or grass-fed meat decreasing the risk.
The cooking flame is also considered as contributing factor into the creation of carcinogenic properties, even though the World Health Organization can`t yet state the exact way by which this could happen. As explained in the article posted last year by Forks Over Knives:
“It could be the heterocyclic amines — carcinogens that form as meat is cooked. It could also be the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or the heme iron in meat, or perhaps its lack of fiber and paucity of antioxidants. But really the situation is like tobacco.
We know tobacco causes lung cancer, even though no one yet knows exactly which part of the tobacco smoke is the major culprit. And although meat-eaters clearly have higher cancer rates, it is not yet clear which part of meat does the deed.”
According to this article, the link between red meat and the onset of cancer had been known since 1907, when the New York Times reported that a seven-year epidemiological study found an increased risk of cancer in meat eaters.
As reported by the Forks Over Knives article, the more widespread acceptance of this information may have been supported by two far more recent studies: “the 2009 NIH-AARP study, with half a million participants; and a 2012 Harvard study with 120,000 participants.”
As officially recommended by The World Health Organization: “consuming a healthy diet with an emphasis on plant foods and limiting consumption of processed meat and red meat.”
This imposes the question: how long have commercial meat companies known about the danger of their products? Speaking of tobacco and asbestos, which read and processed meat now equals in cancer risk, it definitely seems possible that the companies tried to cover up and hide the associated health risks.
With growing evidence implying that both red and processed meats dramatically increase the risk of cancer, it remains to be seen whether the health institutes as well as the media networks will push for labels or public disclosures from companies that produce these products.
World organizations` recent advocacy for synthetic meat and major profit blows to fast food establishments, such as McDonald`s could indicate that we are witnesses of the development of large movement to reduce the worlds dependence on animal agriculture. According to the researchers, animal agriculture has been already shown harmful for the environment.
