Meat Causes Cancer – The Evidence They’ve Ignored

Dr Vernon Coleman MB ChB DSc





Introduction
When the meat industry made a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) about my book about food, I offered a number of scientific papers as evidence that I was simply telling the truth – that meat is a major cause of cancer. The ASA refused to look at the evidence I provided, found in favour of the meat industry and tried (unsuccessfully) to ban ads for the book. So here, in this brief extract from my book (`Meat Causes Cancer’) are basic details of the scientific papers which I submitted to the ASA. The Press Complaints Commission also refused to look at this evidence when the meat industry complained.

`There is clear medical and scientific evidence available to show that nothing, not even tobacco, influences your chances of developing cancer as much as the food you choose to eat. It is estimated that between 30% and 60% of all cancers are caused by what you choose to eat.

Back in 1982 the National Research Council in the United States of America published a technical report entitled Diet, Nutrition and Cancer which showed that diet was probably the single most important factor in the development of cancer, and that there was evidence linking cancers of the breast, colon and prostate to particular foods or types of food.

It is a scandal of astonishing proportions that a majority of the population still do not know about these vitally important and well established links. It is an even bigger scandal that a majority of the medical profession are unaware of these links too. Most doctors I have spoken to — even recently qualified ones — still dismiss the idea of a food/cancer link as mumbo jumbo nonsense. The average medical student probably spends more time staring down a microscope at histology slides than he or she spends studying the importance and significance of nutrition.

The suppression of this information by a greedy and conscience-free food industry, compliant revenue conscious politicians, a cancer industry dominated by grant hungry researchers and an uncaring, drug company dominated medical profession has, I sincerely believe, led to more deaths than any war in history.

Since the early 1980s the amount of evidence linking diet to cancer has grown steadily. In 1990 even the British Medical Association, hardly an organisation which would be widely described as revolutionary, supported the view that there is a link between food and cancer. Their published view was that 35% of cancers were caused by the natural constituents of food and that another 1% of cancers were caused by food additives.

Other organisations suggest that the link between food and cancer is even higher. The National Academy of Sciences in the United States has reported that researchers have estimated that almost 60% of women’s cancers and a little more than 40% of men’s cancers are related to nutritional factors.

Back in 2015 the World Health Organisation published an official warning that meat causes cancer.


Title
Calorie-Providing Nutrients and Risk of Breast Cancer
Source
Journal of the National Cancer Institute
Date
February 15th 1989
Report
The researchers concluded `that during adult life a reduction in dietary intake of fat and proteins of animal origin may contribute to a substantial reduction in the incidence of breast cancer in population subgroups with high intake of animal products.’

Title
Relation of Meat, Fat and Fiber Intake to the Risk of Colon Cancer in a Prospective Study Among Women
Source
The New England Journal of Medicine
Date
December 13th 1990
Report
The researchers concluded that ‘animal fat was positively associated with the risk of colon cancer’ but that ‘no association was found for vegetable fat’. The researchers found that women who ate beef, pork or lamb as a main dish every day were more likely to develop cancer of the colon than were women who ate beef, pork or lamb as a main dish less than once a month. It was also found that processed meats and liver were also ‘significantly associated with increased risk’.
The ratio of the intake of red meat to the intake of chicken and fish was particularly strongly associated with an increased incidence of colon cancer,’ concluded the researchers, who also noted that ‘a low intake of fibre from fruits appeared to contribute to the risk of colon cancer, but this relation was not statistically independent of meat intake.’

‘These prospective data provide evidence for the hypothesis that a high intake of animal fat increases the risk of colon cancer,’ said the researchers.

Title
Dietary Factors and Breast Cancer Risk
International Journal of Cancer
Date
1981
Report
These researchers found that women who ate beef, pork and sweet desserts were significantly more likely to develop breast cancer than women who did not.

Title
Diet as an Etiological Factor in the Development of Cancers of the Colon and Rectum
Source
Journal of Chronic Diseases
Date
1975
Report
The author concludes: ‘The evidence suggests that meat, particularly beef, is a food associated with the development of malignancies of the large bowel.’

Title
Nutrient Intakes In Relation to Cancer Incidence in Hawaii
Source
British Journal of Cancer
Date
1981
Report
The researchers reported that: ‘significant positive associations were found for six of the cancer sites: breast cancer with fat (saturated, unsaturated, animal and total) and protein (animal); corpus-uteri cancer with the same components as breast cancer, prostate cancer with fat (saturated, animal) and protein (animal, total), stomach cancer with fat (fish only) and protein (fish only).

Title
Epidemiological Correlations between Diet and Cancer Frequency
Source
Cancer Research
Date
September 1981
Report
The author stated that: ‘Strong and consistent correlations are reported between death rates of cancers of the colon and breast and the per capita consumption of total fat and of nutrients derived from animal sources, especially beef, pork, eggs and milk. Similar but less consistent correlations have been reported with cancers of the prostate, ovary and endometrium.’

Title
Food Consumption and Cancer of the Colon and Rectum in North-Eastern Italy
Source
International Journal of Cancer
Date
1992
Report
The authors studied 123 patients with colon cancer, 125 patients with rectal cancer and 699 patients with no cancer. They concluded: ‘...the present study …indicates that frequent consumption of …red meat is a risk factor for colorectal cancer.’

Title
A Prospective Study of Dietary Fat and Risk of Prostate Cancer
Source
Journal of the National Cancer Institute
Date
October 6th 1993
Report
The authors found that ‘total fat consumption was directly related to risk of advanced prostate cancer’ and that ‘this association was due primarily to animal fat... but not vegetable fat. Red meat represented the food group with the strongest positive association. …These findings support recommendations to lower intake of meat to reduce the risk of prostate cancer.’

Title
Risk of death from cancer and ischaemic heart disease in meat and non-meat eaters
Source
British Medical Journal
Date
25th June 1994
Report
The researchers reported: ‘These data confirm the findings of previous studies that have shown a reduction in all cause, cancer and cardiovascular mortality among people who do not eat meat.’

My book `Meat Causes Cancer’ (a retitled version of `Food for Thought’) contains more comprehensive details of these and a number of other scientific papers. The references listed above are just a few of the scientific papers which the Advertising Standards Authority and Press Complaints Commission refused to look at. `Meat Causes Cancer’ (previously titled ‘Food for Thought’) contains everything I know about food types, healthy eating, vitamins, minerals, slimming techniques that work and so on. The book explains why tap water isn’t safe to drink and explains how best to avoid food poisoning. There is information about microwaves, protein, fats, carbohydrates and 101 superfoods that can improve your health.
It is, perhaps, not surprising that, in view of the overwhelming nature of the evidence, both the UK and US governments have accepted that eating meat is a significant cause of cancer.
You can buy a copy of `Meat Causes Cancer’ via the bookshop on www.vernoncoleman.com

Copyright Vernon Coleman June 2024





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