The Roots of Health – Episode 58: Red Meat and Cancer

The Roots of Health - Episode 58: Red Meat and Cancer | Meredith Rhodes Carson, PhD, HHC | Forward Health CoachClick here to go right to the show in iTunes or on Stitcher or on WebTalkRadio.net.
Seems like at least once a year, we’re seeing headlines about how red meat is killing us. The latest news is from the World Health Organization – who has just announced that processed meats are carcinogenic, and that red meat is probably carcinogenic. This conclusion was determined by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, or IARC, and is based on data from about 800 research papers.

So what does this mean for you? Do you have to avoid bacon like the plague? Do steaks have to be a thing of the past? Well, before your relationship with food gets compromised any further… let’s get some perspective on this.

This show includes a discussion about how humans have eaten meat throughout their evolution, a bit about what the first American settlers ate and the history of red meat consumption in America, an excerpt from an article from The Atlantic written by Nina Teicholz, author of Big Fat Surprise, called “How Americans Got Red Meat Wrong”, I discuss what the IARC’s categories for carcinogenicity mean, hazard vs. risk, and the proposed relative increase in the risk of getting colorectal cancer from eating processed meat, the limitations of observational studies, not all meat is created equal, and I read some correspondence between myself and Sabine Rohrmann, co-author of a study published in 2013 called, “Meat consumption and mortality – results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition”.

Thanks to Healthcare Triage for the clip, and Audionautix.com for the music.

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The Roots of Health: Explore the disconnect between your health, and your modern environment.