Spiderman
04-07-05, 06:41 PM
Scary News for Hot Dog Lovers
If you enjoy eating lots of hot dogs, sausages, deli meats, and other processed meats, you could face a significantly higher risk of pancreatic cancer, reports Reuters of a large multiethnic study from the Cancer Research Center at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu.
Specifically, those who eat 40 grams or more a day of these meats are 67 percent more likely to develop cancer of the pancreas, compared with those who have the lowest or no intake.
It gets worse. Those whose diet is rich in pork and red meat also increased their risk of pancreatic cancer by about 50 percent. Led by Dr. Ute Nothlings, the seven-year study involved 190,545 men and women of African-American, Japanese-American, Caucasian, Latino and Native Hawaiian descent. Of these, 482 developed pancreatic cancer.
Consumption of poultry, fish, dairy products and eggs showed no link to pancreatic cancer risk. Nothlings thinks the carcinogenic culprits in processed meats are substances that arise related to chemical reactions during the meat production, rather than any inherent fat or cholesterol. Why? The risk only stemmed from processed meats and not dairy products, which would also have fat and cholesterol.
"Our study is the largest of its kind to demonstrate a link between high consumption of processed meats over long periods of time and pancreatic cancer," said Nothlings in a news release announcing the study findings. "The sample size allowed us to obtain statistically significant risk-estimates that support this hypothesis." She said the next research step is to examine cooking methods. The results were reported a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Anaheim, California.
The findings were disputed by the American Meat Institute, which noted a phenomenon that is common in scientific studies: A different study published one week earlier than this one in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute reached the opposite conclusion. "The most important fact is that the larger body of evidence has shown that processed meats are a healthy part of a balanced diet," the trade group said in a statement.
If you enjoy eating lots of hot dogs, sausages, deli meats, and other processed meats, you could face a significantly higher risk of pancreatic cancer, reports Reuters of a large multiethnic study from the Cancer Research Center at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu.
Specifically, those who eat 40 grams or more a day of these meats are 67 percent more likely to develop cancer of the pancreas, compared with those who have the lowest or no intake.
It gets worse. Those whose diet is rich in pork and red meat also increased their risk of pancreatic cancer by about 50 percent. Led by Dr. Ute Nothlings, the seven-year study involved 190,545 men and women of African-American, Japanese-American, Caucasian, Latino and Native Hawaiian descent. Of these, 482 developed pancreatic cancer.
Consumption of poultry, fish, dairy products and eggs showed no link to pancreatic cancer risk. Nothlings thinks the carcinogenic culprits in processed meats are substances that arise related to chemical reactions during the meat production, rather than any inherent fat or cholesterol. Why? The risk only stemmed from processed meats and not dairy products, which would also have fat and cholesterol.
"Our study is the largest of its kind to demonstrate a link between high consumption of processed meats over long periods of time and pancreatic cancer," said Nothlings in a news release announcing the study findings. "The sample size allowed us to obtain statistically significant risk-estimates that support this hypothesis." She said the next research step is to examine cooking methods. The results were reported a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Anaheim, California.
The findings were disputed by the American Meat Institute, which noted a phenomenon that is common in scientific studies: A different study published one week earlier than this one in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute reached the opposite conclusion. "The most important fact is that the larger body of evidence has shown that processed meats are a healthy part of a balanced diet," the trade group said in a statement.