To Eat or Not To Eat

Abstract from Lancet Oncology
People who eat large amounts of meat might be at increased risk of dev eloping some types of gastric cancer, European researchers report (J Natl Cancer Inst 2006; 98: 345–54). The risk is higher if they are also infected with Helicobacter pylori. “The most important thing we found
is an association between red meat and processed-meat intake and non-cardia gastric cancer”, says lead researcher Carlos González, Catalan Institute of Oncology, Barcelona, Spain. “The risk was much larger in people who ate a lot of red [meat] and processed meat and who were also infected with H pylori".

Patients who had the highest meat intake had other characteristics that
could contribute to risk of developing cancer, she says, such as a greater
possibility that they were current or former smokers, or that they had low
consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables. “It may be across the board that those with the highest consumption were the unhealthiest in many areas, all of which could infl uence their cancer risk”, Cline-Burkhardt adds.