Tuesday, March 24, 2009

meat munchers

The federal study of more than half a million men and women bolsters prior evidence of the health risks of diets laden with red meat like hamburger and processed meats like hot dogs, bacon and cold cuts.

Calling the increased risk modest, lead author Rashmi Sinha of the National Cancer Institute said the findings support the advice of several health groups to limit red and processed meat intake to decrease cancer risk.


The amount that is too much:

Over 10 years, eating the equivalent of a 125-gram (quarter-pound) hamburger daily gave men in the study a 22 per cent higher risk of dying of cancer and a 27 per cent higher risk of dying of heart disease. That's compared to those who ate the least red meat, just 140 grams per week.

Women who ate large amounts of red meat had a 20 per cent higher risk of dying of cancer and a 50 per cent higher risk of dying of heart disease than women who ate less.


But before you cut all meat out of your diet there are a few things you should be wary of. First of all the study was done on a group of 50 to 70-year-olds over a 10 year period and they relied on the person's memory of what they ate. Second, this conclusion can be drawn for people in that age group and not necessarily everyone. The recommendation is to replace some of the red meat in your diet with white meat such as chicken and fish - Happy Eating!

- source: abstract, full report

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