Cancer Prevention Blog

Carrie Ruxton, a member of the meat industry-funded Meat Advisory Panel, has had a letter published by Meat Trades Journal in which she criticises our Expert Report‘s findings on red and processed meat.

Dr Ruxton suggests the fact that a decline in red meat consumption in the UK has coincided with a rise in cancer rate contradicts the finding that red and processed meat increases risk of cancer.

So is she right?

Professor Martin Wiseman, WCRF’s Medical and Scientific Adviser and the project director of the Expert Report, has written a response to Meat Trades Journal.

Here it … Continue Reading

Red meat: a cancer risk factor

I was at the House of Commons on Tuesday for a meeting of the Associate Parliamentary Food and Health Forum about dietary recommendations on red meat consumption.

One of the speakers, together with Professor Peter Aggett who chaired the subgroup that produced the recent Government Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) report on Iron and Health, and Dr Alison Tedstone from the Department of Health, was Maureen Strong, Nutrition Manager for … Continue Reading

The Scientific Advisory Committe on Nutrition (SACN) has today issued its Iron and Health report.

On the links between red and processed meat and cancer, SACN states:

Red and processed meat is a source of iron in the diet of the UK population. COMA reported possible links between red and processed meat consumption and colorectal cancer risk in 1998 and the evidence that has accumulated since then generally supports this association. However, it is not possible to quantify the amount of red and processed meat that may be associated with increased colorectal cancer risk because of limitations and inconsistencies in the data. It may be … Continue Reading

Red meat: a cancer risk factor?

I blogged earlier in the week about a Daily Mail article questioning the link between red meat and cancer without mentioning that the review it was based on was funded by the meat industry.

In yesterday’s Evening Standard, Dr Christian Jessen also mentioned this review. And, like the Mail, he failed to mention that it had been funded by the meat industry.

We think this is an important piece … Continue Reading

Red meat: a healthy food?

There is a story in the news today about how people think red meat contains more fat that is actually the case.

This comes from MeatMatters, which is funded by the meat industry.

So it is not surprising that they have used the survey to suggest that red meat is actually healthier than people think.

But regardless of the fat content, there is convincing evidence that red and processed meat increase risk of bowel … Continue Reading

The World Cancer Research Fund has recently awarded its first grant under the Request for Application Programme . The request called for research examining novel ways of assessing our food and nutrient intake. Traditional methods often involve people recalling what they have had to eat and drink. How easy would you find it to remember accurately how many times in the last year you had eaten a long list of foods?

We were looking for research that would identify other ways of assessing what we have to eat and drink that don’t rely on what people tell us. Measuring the … Continue Reading