It is a myth that roasted meat and red meat can cause cancer! Harvard doctor reveals 10 common senses about "meat stigma"

In recent years, processed meat and red meat have been labeled with negative labels such as carcinogenic and obesity. Georgia Ede, a psychiatrist who worked in the treatment of the clinic at Harvard University, pointed out in his book "Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind" that many discussions on the health risks of red meat and processed meat actually have a lot of misunderstandings. She disassembled 10 common myths one by one and cleared the facts based on research data.

Misunderstanding 1: Heme Iron can cause carcinogenic

Heme Iron not only plays an important role in animal physiology, but also gives red meat unique color and flavor, but is heme Iron really a carcinogenic element? Dr. Claverde (David) is the leader of the National Nutrition Programme of the USDA and one of the authors of the World Health Organization's Reports Klurfeld pointed out as early as 2015: "No data shows that normal concentrations of redox iron in the human tract can cause harm."

Error 2: Charged meat can cause carcinogenic

When the meat is roasted or made, polycyclic aromatic carbon dioxide compounds (PAHs) and cyclamines (HCAs) are produced, which are indeed related to cancer in experimental animals. However, the doses used in animal experiments are usually 1 million to 100,000 times the amount in human daily diet. The results of epidemiological research in humans are quite limited and the conclusions are inconsistent.

In addition, HCA is not a specialty of red meat. High-protein ingredients such as fish and chicken can also produce HCA under high temperature cooking. PAH is present in any high-temperature cooking ingredients, including cooked vegetables, roasted cocoa products, powdered milk powder, and even common grains and breads. The PAH concentration is sometimes more than 1,000 times higher than that of barbecue.

Error 3: Nitrate and ham, processed meat can cause cancer

Nitrate and ham, are commonly used to make processed meat such as bacon, ham, etc., but many vegetables naturally contain a large amount of nitric acid.例如，菠菜每克含有的硝酸鹽量，是熱狗的80倍以上。

Nitrate itself is not proven to be carcinogenic, and cancer can only be triggered in animal experiments when combined with certain protein fragments to form "nitrosamine". If salt nitrate is really so dangerous, we should not only avoid bacon and ham, but also limit the use of spinach, celery and other vegetables. However, it is actually salt nitrate in most diets, which actually comes from vegetables, not processed meat.

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Misunderstanding 4: Eating meat will cause constipation

Meat is one of the easiest foods to digest. Gastric acid, kidney enzymes and juice can decompose protein in meat into amino acids and fat into fatty acids, which are almost completely absorbed by the human body, and almost no undigested meat residue will be left in the excrement.

On the contrary, plant-based foods such as cauliflower, fruits, seeds, beans and corn are often excreted in undigested forms. Therefore, it is actually unreasonable to plan constipation and meat types.

Miscellaneous Solution 5: Meat can lead to obesity

The prevalence of obesity is a modern phenomenon, but the key to the real impact of fat stockpiling is in insulin concentration: when insulin remains high for long periods of time, the body will tend to store fat; on the contrary, under low insulin conditions, fat burning will be activated.

A study covering 38 common foods shows that beef triggers sugar-raising reactions and insulin secretion are the lowest among all foods. The problem lies in the cooking methods, such as frying with powder, smearing high-sugar roasted sauce or making sandwiches, these additional carbohydrates are the main factors that cause fat.

Missue 6: Meat can cause diabetes. The core problem of type 2 diabetes is long-term high blood sugar, while meat contains almost no carbohydrates, which naturally does not cause blood sugar to rise. Similarly, a 1997 study pointed out that beef has the lowest sugar-raising reaction among 38 test foods. What really needs to be worried about is the cooking method of high-sugar sauce and high-carb water, not the meat itself.

Missue 7: Meat can cause hypertension

Comprehensive analysis of 36 random control trials in 2020 found that compared with other protein sources, red meat has no significant impact on blood pressure.

此外，低碳水飲食（包含適量肉類）甚至被證實能有效降低血壓，減少降壓藥的需求。 The reason is that reducing carbohydrate intake can reduce insulin secretion, thereby promoting the excretion of ion in the kidneys and finally achieving a pressure-reducing effect.

Error 8: The risk factor for kidney failure is hyperglycemia, followed by hypertension, rather than a high protein diet. Healthy kidneys can handle high protein extraction.

As early as 1930, a study of two men who only ate meat for a year showed that their kidney function was completely normal. Recent studies of bodybuilding athletes have also proved that even after taking up 2.2 to 3 grams of protein per kilogram per day for several months (about 3 times the recommended amount), the kidney function has not been damaged.

Missue 9: Meat can cause pain storms

For a long time, pain storms have been considered to be the result of eating too much meat, but research has not supported this statement. In fact, the root cause of pain is mostly related to insulin impedance. When the insulin impedance increases, the ability of the kidneys to excrete uric acid decreases, the uric acid concentration in the blood will increase, which will lead to crystal formation in the correlation period and cause pain..

Missue 10: Meat can cause inflammation

Red meat is often criticized for containing molecules such as raw and fat, Omega-6 fatty acids, redox iron, and Neu5Gc, which is unique to breastfeeding animal meat, which may cause chronic inflammation.

However, a 2020 24 comprehensive analysis of 24 human RCTs pointed out that red meat does not affect inflammation indicators in the blood. On the contrary, long-term high blood sugar is proven to cause systemic chronic inflammation.

Conclusion: Red meat may mostly come from misunderstandings from cancer to obesity, from kidney disease to pain, many accusations that red meat and processed meat are harmful to health, but in fact they lack serious scientific support. Dr. Id pointed out that compared with his fear of meat, we should pay more attention to the overall diet, especially excessive refined carbohydrates and sugar intake, which is the root cause of many chronic diseases.