- #31
jack476
- 327
- 125
Back in the caveman times, and in fact up until relatively recently, you were unlikely to live long enough to die of cancer. So even though humans have been eating meat for a very long time, the small cancer risk attached to eating meat wasn't enough of a risk for early death to have an evolutionary significance.
But the thing to remember there is that it's a small risk. A lot of things come with very small increases of cancer risk: being out in the sun or being friends with a person who smokes, for instance. And according to the WHO (source: http://www.who.int/cancer/prevention/en/), there is no safe amount of alcohol when it comes to cancer risk, yet many people who drink live perfectly healthy lives. The only way to truly eliminate your risk of cancer would be to put yourself in cryogenic stasis. And you also have to weigh that small increase in your cancer risk against the potential health ramifications of avoiding meat entirely, abruptly cutting out your main protein source without having a vegetarian alternative to replace it both causes a substantial loss of variety in the diet (lack of variety is an obesity risk factor) and leaves you with a potential deficiency of protein.
That said, what's really dangerous about meat, especially red meat, is that a lot of people eat too much of it, and it's often prepared with a lot of salt and served alongside unhealthy food (ie a Big Mac and fries). It's even worse when you're eating cheap meat, because that's guaranteeing that it's loaded with salt and fat. And that's exactly what this article is saying: meat in general is not dangerous, but cheap processed meat and eating too much red meat are bad for you.
There's also the environmental consideration. Methane produced by the livestock industry contributes 18% (in 2006, it's probably slightly more now as more people in the world can afford to eat meat, source: http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/News/2006/1000448/index.html) of the world's greenhouse gas emissions (in terms of the carbon dioxide equivalent of the released methane). So down the line, that could also contribute to cancer risk if it results in more people being sedentary and staying indoors during the warmer months.
But the thing to remember there is that it's a small risk. A lot of things come with very small increases of cancer risk: being out in the sun or being friends with a person who smokes, for instance. And according to the WHO (source: http://www.who.int/cancer/prevention/en/), there is no safe amount of alcohol when it comes to cancer risk, yet many people who drink live perfectly healthy lives. The only way to truly eliminate your risk of cancer would be to put yourself in cryogenic stasis. And you also have to weigh that small increase in your cancer risk against the potential health ramifications of avoiding meat entirely, abruptly cutting out your main protein source without having a vegetarian alternative to replace it both causes a substantial loss of variety in the diet (lack of variety is an obesity risk factor) and leaves you with a potential deficiency of protein.
That said, what's really dangerous about meat, especially red meat, is that a lot of people eat too much of it, and it's often prepared with a lot of salt and served alongside unhealthy food (ie a Big Mac and fries). It's even worse when you're eating cheap meat, because that's guaranteeing that it's loaded with salt and fat. And that's exactly what this article is saying: meat in general is not dangerous, but cheap processed meat and eating too much red meat are bad for you.
There's also the environmental consideration. Methane produced by the livestock industry contributes 18% (in 2006, it's probably slightly more now as more people in the world can afford to eat meat, source: http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/News/2006/1000448/index.html) of the world's greenhouse gas emissions (in terms of the carbon dioxide equivalent of the released methane). So down the line, that could also contribute to cancer risk if it results in more people being sedentary and staying indoors during the warmer months.
