Why Is Meat Linked to Cancer? - How Foods Fight Cancer

Why Is Meat Linked to Cancer? - How Foods Fight Cancer

Why should meat contribute to cancer risk? For starters, its fat content is
virtually always much higher than that of plant products. Even skinless
chicken breast harbors a surprising amount of fat, and virtually all meats
are totally out of the league of truly low-fat foods—whole grains, beans,
vegetables, and fruits.

Since meat is not a plant product, it never has any fiber at all. The
more you fill up on meat, the less room you have for fiber-rich foods. As
we discovered in chapter 1, fatty, low-fiber foods boost the hormones that
are linked to common forms of cancer. Meat is also devoid of vitamin C
and low in other protective nutrients found in plants.

Researchers have started to investigate additional reasons that link
meat to cancer risk. Scientists in London found that individuals who consumed
a diet high in red meat (15 ounces per day) had significantly higher
colon levels of N-nitroso compounds—compounds that can alter DNA and
increase the risk of developing colon cancer—compared to the levels found
in those who consumed a vegetarian diet. An intermediate group that consumed
red meat and high-fiber foods had lower levels of N-nitroso
compounds than those eating the high-meat diet, but not as low as the vegetarian
group. This suggests that fiber may have played a protective role for
the intermediate group by repairing damaged DNA and decreasing the
amount of time harmful compounds, such as N-nitroso compounds, stay in
the colon.10

Meat also has other problems. As meats are cooked, cancer-causing
chemicals called heterocyclic amines tend to form within the meat tissue, as
we saw in chapter 2. The longer and hotter meat is cooked, the more these
compounds form. Grilled chicken has turned out to harbor these cancercausing
substances and is the largest source of heterocyclic amines in the
U.S. diet.11