People who eat a lot of red meat may have a higher risk of some types of kidney cancer.
People who eat a lot of red meat may have a higher risk of some types of kidney cancer, according to an American study conducted among thousands of adults.
Researchers who wrote their results in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that middle-aged adults who ate more red meat were 19 percent more likely to suffer from kidney cancer than those who ate less.
A higher intake of the chemicals found in grilled meat was also associated with a higher risk of suffering from the disease.
“Our findings support dietary recommendations for cancer prevention: limit the intake of red and processed meat and prepare meat by methods such as the oven and iron,” said lead researcher Carrie Daniel of the National Cancer Institute of the United States .
Previous studies that examined the link between red meat and kidney cancer reached mixed conclusions , so Daniel and his colleagues used data from a study among some 500,000 Americans 50 years or older to get more information about it.
The group was surveyed about their eating habits, including meat consumption, and then followed for an average of nine years to study any cancer diagnosis.
During that time, about 1,800 of them – less than 0.5 percent – were diagnosed with kidney cancer.
On average, the men who participated in the study ate between 57 and 85 grams of red meat a day , compared to 28 to 57 grams of the women.
Participants with higher consumption – about 113 grams a day – were 19 percent more likely to suffer from kidney cancer than those who ate less than 28 grams daily.
That result came after taking into account other aspects of diet and lifestyle that could have influenced cancer risk, such as age, race, fruit and vegetable consumption, smoking and alcohol intake, and other medical circumstances such as high blood pressure and diabetes.
The study does not show that eating red meat, or cooking it in a specific way, causes kidney cancer. And, according to Mohammed El-Faramawi, an epidemiologist at the University of North Texas Health Sciences Center in Fort Worth, some people who eat a lot of red meat will never develop kidney cancer, while others who hardly try it will.
“Red meat is an important source of iron, it has proteins,” said El-Faramawi, who was not involved in the study, and noted that eating a limited amount when eating guidelines is a good idea.
“We should not stop eating red meat because there is an association between red meat and kidney cancer , ” he added.
Daniel said more studies are needed to find out why eating red meat is linked to some cancers but not to others.
But for now, he said, chemicals related to the way of cooking meat can be reduced by limiting the cooking time, avoiding direct exposure of the meat to the flame or on a hot metal surface, and using the microwave to partially cook it before subjecting it to high temperatures.