US National Cancer Institute Study on Eating Meat....Grilling Meat

I took this information from the Vegan Dad. He is one of my favorite bloggers. Check out the information he posted in reply to the Nutrition Action Healthletter's reporting of "The real cost of red meat." This Healthletter was prompted by the U.S. National Cancer Institute's largest study ever done on consumption of red meat. The findings, those who ate 125 grams of red (beef and pork) and processed meat a day had a 30% greater chance of dying of heart disease and cancer than those that ate 20 grams or less a day. The study found that potentially carciongenic N-nitroso compounds are formed in the gut when heme iron from red meat and gut bacteria trigger meat protein to combine with nitrates.

This is Vegan Dad's response: I read about the study in the recent issue of Nutrition Action. The coverage was interesting. According to Walter Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health, "if you go from eating meat twice a day to once a week, you can eliminate most of the risk." Most of the risk? Why not eliminate all the risk? Isn't this like recommending smoking one cigarette a day to reduce the risk of cancer? Nutrition Action gets in on the game, too. Even though grilling meat increases your risk of cancer, the editors offer a list of tips for "good grilling" to minimize the risk. And, while they condemn red meat for its environmental impact (55% of the erosion, 37% of pesticides applied, 50% of antibiotics consumed, 32% of nitrogen and 33% of the phosphorous load into the water supply in the U.S.), they let fish and poultry off the hook.
It's time for health advocates to promote veganism and quit this ridiculous charade of minimizing the risk of meat.

As for organic, grass-feed, wheatver, beef: it does not matter. This is about heme iron in red meat (no matter how it was raised), meat protein (not veggie), and nitrites (from veggies, water, processed meat) mixing together to form carcinogenic compounds. Secondly, it is about mutagens (HCAs) in cooked meat that occur regardless of how the meat was raised.Also, all cows, regardless of how they are raised, release methane--a greenhouse gas.

On grilling meat:Grilling meat creates two classes of mutagens: 1. heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and 2. polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Mutagens can cause changes in DNA which can lead to cancer). The body recognizes both of these mutagens as foreign substances that need to be expelled. Thus, the body tries to make them more soluable so they can be washed out in the urine. However, this process makes the mutagens more active and more able to damage DNA. On grilling veggies:According to the article, veggie burgers and cooked vegetables generate little or no HCAs. Grilling is not specifically mentioned. However, cruciferous veggies like broccoli and Brussels sprouts may help your liver detoxify HCAs.