Red Meat Consumption Does Not Cause Colon Cancer

Just in case you’ve been buried somewhere and missed the nanny-ninnies’ handwringing over the alleged link between high consumption of red meat and processed meat (gotta cover all the bases, don’t they?) and colon cancer, you can catch up with this report at CancerFacts.com.

You’d think with a web site name like that, they’d take extra care to ensure that the information published is accurate, but it appears they’re just part of the health-care herd. So, as it so often does, it falls to the pro-freedom “extremist” types to debunk the junk. And, in typical fine fashion, the Center for Consumer Freedom did so, with its own brief piece published yesterday that presents the real story on the latest anti-meat study. A quote that cuts to the chase:

An examination of the study published yesterday in JAMA reveals that a handful of results were cherry-picked from largely inconclusive evidence. In case after case, the study’s own data show no statistically significant relationship between meat consumption and various forms of cancer.

By the way, don’t bother clicking through to the JAMA article; the medical monopolists’ guild wants readers to pay $12/24 hours for access to that one article alone! BugMeNot login info failed to get me in ...

If you aren’t familiar with CCF, they’re a good bunch; they relentlessly take on the various food nazis with enthusiasm and a fun, irreverent style. I especially like their ActivistCash and NeoProhibition sites.

As I was saying when I wrapped up my last entry griping about food nannies, most westerners are probably right to have some concerns about their diets. Many of us tend to eat a lot of processed foods, and too much sweet stuff (in saying the latter, I’m including the sugar substitutes; as Pat pointed out in her comments on that blog entry, there’s good reason to be suspicious of artificial sweeteners like splenda). On the issue of consuming meat: I know it’s a touchy issue for some; and I’ve my own internal debates about my values and practices. But I observe that most humans still have those pointy canine teeth, designed to tear into flesh, and it’s my conclusion that we still have ’em for a reason. That observation, coupled with the above, and given the choice between a hot dog and a large ribeye, it’s a no-brainer which one this snake’s gonna pounce on every time. And I’ll do so without any fears of increasing my cancer risk, thankyouverymuch.