Breast Cancer: More Chicken, Less Steak!
Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.
More posts by Christiane Fux All content is checked by medical journalists.Women who eat a lot of red meat are more likely to develop breast cancer. Poultry, on the other hand, could even have a protective effect.
This is the result of a US research team when it evaluated the data of more than 42,000 women who had participated in the so-called Sister Study. The study followed women whose sisters had already developed breast cancer.
Because siblings have much in common in terms of genes, environment, and experience, scientists hope it will help them discover risk factors for breast cancer more quickly.
Lots of red meat, 23 percent higher risk
During the observation period of 7.6 years, 1,536 of the participants developed breast cancer. An analysis of meat preferences and the amount of meat consumed showed that the risk of breast cancer for women who ate the most red meat (an average of 1.6 servings a day) was 23 percent higher than that of participants who ate the least red meat (an average of 0.2 servings a day).
The “red meat” category includes beef, lamb, game and pork as well as meat products made from them, such as burgers or sausages.
Replace red meat with poultry
By contrast, women who ate large quantities of white poultry meat reduced their risk of breast cancer by 15 percent. Women who had replaced red with white meat in their diet benefited most. Your risk of breast cancer decreased by 28 percent.
"The mechanisms by which poultry meat reduces the risk of breast cancer are not clear. However, our study shows that replacing red meat with poultry could be an easy-to-implement measure to reduce breast cancer," says senior author of the study, Prof. Dale Sandle from National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Increased risk of colon cancer
Red meat has long been considered a health problem. Larger amounts have been shown to promote colon cancer. Stomach and prostate cancer could also be favored as a result. In addition, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases are more common among fans of steak & co.
Possible explanations are that the preparation produces substances such as heterocyclic aromatic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which can be carcinogenic. This applies even more to the nitroso compounds found in sausage products.
These can also arise during the preparation or processing of white meat. Since poultry meat usually contains less fat and is also often seared less spicy, such as a steak, however, it is produced in significantly smaller quantities.
The International Agency for Cancer Research (IARC) now classifies at least red meat as likely, and sausage products even as clearly carcinogenic.
Does red meat contain cancer-causing viruses?
However, the German cancer researcher Harald zur Hausen has a completely different hypothesis for the connection between red meat and cancer: Viruses living in red meat could promote cancer - similar to how HP viruses promote the occurrence of cervical cancer. For this realization, zur Hausen received the 2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine.
