BC Cancer - Winter 2017 - 4

HEALTHY INSIGHTS

Can Eating Meat
Really Cause Cancer?
Here's what you need to know before you cook your next hot
dog or order your next steak
DISCOVERY spoke with Dr. John
Spinelli, vice-president of population oncology at BC Cancer, to
get the facts about meat and
cancer risk.
In 2015 the World Health
Organization (WHO) ofﬁcially
classiﬁed processed meats as
carcinogenic to humans and listed
red meat as a probable carcinogen. We wanted to ﬁnd out what
exactly this means for a daily diet.

Q

Does the consumption
of processed meat really
increase a person's risk of
developing cancer?

The short answer is yes. The evidence is clear that people whose
diet is high in processed meat
have a higher risk of developing
colorectal cancer. In particular,
eating 50 grams of processed
meat every day (the equivalent
of about four strips of bacon or
one hot dog) increases the risk

Take advantage of provincial
breast, cervical and colon cancer
screening programs to detect
cancer earlier or (even better) to
reduce the risk of cancer before
it starts. Visit bccancer.bc.ca/
screening today.

4

PARTNERS IN DISCOVERY

of colorectal cancer by 18 per
cent. That sounds like a lot, but
it means that your lifetime risk of
colorectal cancer increases from
around ﬁve to six per cent.

Q

Is processed meat as bad
as smoking or asbestos?

The answer is definitely
no. These classiﬁcations indicate how certain we are that
these things are likely to cause
cancer, not how many cancers
they cause. Smoking is known to
cause over 80 per cent of all lung
cancers, and all cases of mesothelioma are caused by asbestos. Roughly 15 per cent of all
colorectal cancers can be attributed to eating processed meat.

Q

Should we completely
eliminate processed
meats from our diet?

The sensible advice is to treat
processed meat in the same way
we treat other foods that
we know are bad for us,
like sugary desserts. Don't
feel guilty about eating
them, but try to limit your
consumption.

Q

What's your best
advice when it
comes to meat
consumption and cancer risk?

Lean red meat can be an
important source of iron,

Dr. John Spinelli

Processed meats
include: hot dogs, ham,
bacon, sausage, some
deli meats and meats
treated by salting, curing,
fermenting and smoking.
Red meat includes: beef,
pork, lamb and goat.

zinc, vitamin B12 and protein. In
terms of cancer risk, there is no
reason to cut meat completely
from your diet. However, it
would deﬁnitely be worthwhile
to consider alternatives to red
meat such as chicken, turkey
or ﬁsh.
The bottom line is that there
are many ways for us to reduce
our cancer risk. Of course we
do this by avoiding tobacco, but
also by eating more fruits and
vegetables, increasing ﬁbre in
our diet, exercising regularly,
maintaining a healthy body
weight and protecting ourselves
from the sun.
http://bccancer.bc.ca/screening http://bccancer.bc.ca/screening
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BC Cancer - Winter 2017
