From:    Vaishnava Dasa                         
Subject: Red Meat alert


Red Alert on Red Meat
---------------------
The link between high-fat diets and colon cancer gets stronger

  With each new dietary study, eating seems to become less of a
joyful experience and more of a risky business.  The latest word
follows that depressing pattern:  researchers announced that the
chances of developing colon cancer appear to rise almost in direct
proportion to the amount of red meat and animal fat that people
consume.  That left fearful Americans grappling with the question:
Is it wise to eat any red meat at all?

  Reporting in the _New England Journal of Medicine_, Harvard
scientists found that women who had beef, lamb or pork as a daily
main dish ran 2-1/2 times the risk of developing colon cancer as did
those who ate the meats less than once a month.  One surprise:
eating dairy products, which also tend to be high in animal fats,
did not appear to increase the disease risk.  The conclusions are
drawn from a study of 88,751 nurses that was begun in 1980.  The
women filled out diet and medical questionnaires and were resurveyed
at intervals over the next six years; 150 of the nurses developed
colon cancer.  The researchers believe their findings apply to men
as well, though confirmation awaits the results of a parallel study.

  The American Cancer Society estimates that there will be 155,000
new cases of colon cancer this year and almost 61,000 deaths from
the disease, making it second only to lung cancer among fatal
malignancies.  Diets high in fat and low in fiber from fruits and
vegetables have long been implicated in the disease.  Once clue:
the ailment becomes more common among people as they emigrate from
countries, like Japan, where meat consumption is low, to the U.S.,
where meat is a staple.  Scientists speculate that bile acids
produced by the liver to help digest fats can damage the intestine.
Another theory is that red meat may contain cancer-triggering
chemicals.

  The women in the study got about 37% of their daily calories from
fat, the average for the general population these days.  Federal
dietary guidelines recommend reducing fat to no more tha 30% of
calories.  In particular, people are urged to eat less red meat and
more main courses lower in fat, such as chicken and fish.  The
merits of such a plan were borne out in the Harvard study:  the more
poultry and fish in the nurses' diet, the lower their chances of
getting colon cancer.  Women who consumed skinless chicken two or
more times a week had half the risk of those who ate it less than
once a month.  "The less red meat the better," says Dr. Walter
Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard
School of Pulbic Health, who directed the study.  "At most, it
should be eaten only occasionally.  And it may be maximally
effective not to eat red meat at all."

  To many, Willett's words sound like a call to vegetarianism.  The
meat industry, which has watched sales slip as health consciousness
has climbed, was particularly incensed.  Nutritionist David Hurt of
the National Livestock and Meat Board points out that the study does
not demonstrate cause and effect, and that cattle and pigs
increasingly are being bred to produce less fatty meat.  "Beef is
27% leaner than it was in 1986 and pork 31%," he observes.

  More disinterested experts also object to proscribing meat.  The
picture on diet and colon cancer is still very murky, they contend.
Moreover, small amounts of lean meat can be very nutritious.  "Meat
is the single richest source of iron and zinc and contributes
significant amounts of vitamins," says Mary Abbott Hess, a
registered Dietetic Association.  "Women consume relatively few
calories compared with men.  And eliminating meat means that they'll
have a hard time getting those nutrients elsewhere."  Dr. Peter
Greenwald, director of cancer prevention and control at the National
Cancer Institute, agrees:  "It's a good and important study, but
it's going beyond the data to recommend becoming a vegetarian."  The
word for now remains cut back, not cut out.

-- By Anastasia Toufexis
TIME, December 24, 1990