U.S. Study Finds

Another Reason to be Vegetarian:
Chicken Can Cause Cancer, Too.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) 10/19/98

People who have quit eating steaks for health reasons but
still eat ll have a higher risk of colon cancer, researchers
say. They said so-called white meat is no less likely to
causethe more peas and beans a person eats, the lower the
risk of colon cancer, they found. ``There is evidence of an
excess risk of colon cancer for higher intakes of both red
meat and white meat,'' Dr. Pramil Singh and Dr. Gary Fraser
of the Center for Health Research at Loma Linda University
in California wrote in the latest issue of the American
Journal of Epidemiology. ``The strongest (food-related) risk
factor... was found for total meat intake,'' they added.
Genetic makeup can also affect a person's risk of colon
cancer. Singh and Fraser used information from the Adventist
Health Study, which examines the health of 34,000 Seventh
Day Adventists. They are supposed to follow a largely
vegetarian diet, but many sometimes eat meat. Between 1977
and 1982 they found 157 cases of colon cancer in this group.
Colon cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death
in the United States, after lung cancer. People who said
they ate red meat once a week had a 38 percent higher risk
of colon cancer than those who ate no meat. People who
reported sometimes eating white meat had a 55 percent higher
risk of colon cancer compared with vegetarians. The more
meat the Adventists ate, the higher their risk. People who
ate red or white meat four times a week or more had up to
200 percent -- three times -- the risk of colon cancer.
Singh and Fraser said they did not know why meat had this
effect, but diets high in fat and meat, and low in fruits,
vegetables and fiber, have been linked to several forms of
cancer, including colon cancer. Several teams of researchers
have found that cooking red meat produces chemicals known as
heterocyclic aromatic amines, which have been found to cause
tumors in rats and mice. Last year the American Institute
for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund
estimated that as many as 4 million cases of cancer
worldwide could be prevented every year if people ate less
meat and more vegetables. The World Health Organization
agrees people should cut back on meat and eat more fruits
and vegetables to avoid cancer. A 1996 study found that
heavy consumption of animal fat, saturated and
mono-unsaturated fat and red meat was associated with the
development of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in women.

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