Public Memo - Red Meat can \

Red meat can "raise cancer risk"

Eating too much red meat increases the risk of bowel cancer because it damages DNA, scientists believe.

Tests on cells from people who ate different diets showed red meat raised levels of compounds in the large bowel
which can alter DNA and increase the likelihood of contracting the disease.

"It is the first definite link between red meat and the very first stage in cancer, " said Professor Sheila Bingham, of the Medical Research Council's Dunn nutrition unit in Cambridge.

In earlier research, Prof Bingham's team found the risk of colorectal cancer was a third higher in people who ate more than two portions of red or processed meat than it was in someone who ate less than one portion a week.

In their latest study, the experts studied cells from the colon lining of people who followed red meat, vegeterian, high red meat or high fibre diets for 15 days. Red meats include beef, lamb, pork and veal.

They found red meat consumption was linked to higher levels of substances called N- nitrosocompounds, which are formed in the large bowel.

The compounds may stick to DNA, making it more likely to undergo mutations that increase the odds of cancer.

The DNA damage may be repaired naturally in the body, and fibre in the diet may help the process. But if it is not, cancer can develop, said
Prof Bingham.

The findings could help develop a screening test for very early changes related to the disease, she told scientific journal Cancer Research.

Each year, 35,000 Britons are diagnosed with bowel cancer and it kills 16,000.