From Drovers update
Red-meat cancer link questioned
Last week, the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society announced the results of two studies that they said show that red meat may raise colorectal cancer risks. (See Drovers Alert, Jan. 13, 2005.) Researchers claimed the studies are consistent with evolving thinking about specific foods and their cancer risks. But the results of those studies were called into question this week by Steven Milloy, publisher of http://www.JunkScience.com and http://www.CSRwatch.com, a columnist for http://www.FoxNews.com and an adjunct scholar at the CATO Institute, a non-profit public-policy research foundation in Washington, D.C. The research involved nearly 150,000 men and women aged 50 to 74 years who recorded their meat intake in 1982 and again in 1992-93. Milloy said the researchers actually had no conclusion worth reporting after they did an initial analysis of their data. "High intake of red meat reported in 1992/93 was associated with higher risk of colon cancer after adjusting for age and energy intake but not after further adjustment for body mass index, cigarette smoking and other (risk factors)," the researchers said. "Facing the prospect of no result," Milloy says, "I think the researchers then engaged in some slicing-and-dicing of their data in hopes of discovering some statistical correlation they could point to as a 'risk.'"
Comment:
As we reported last week, study co-author, Dr. Michael Thun, the American Cancer Society's epidemiology chief, said the results should be put into perspective: Smoking, obesity and inactivity are still thought to be more strongly linked with colon cancer than eating lots of red meat, he said. But Milloy also questioned the motives of another of the study's authors. "The National Cancer Institute's Rashmi Sinha has a long history of trying to use weak science to convict meat of causing cancer," Milloy said. "It appears that Dr. Sinha remains bent on using her position at the National Cancer Institute to scare us away from eating meat. She's been at it since 1994, but with little to show except a stack of scary, but unsupported headlines." — G.H.
Red-meat cancer link questioned
Last week, the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society announced the results of two studies that they said show that red meat may raise colorectal cancer risks. (See Drovers Alert, Jan. 13, 2005.) Researchers claimed the studies are consistent with evolving thinking about specific foods and their cancer risks. But the results of those studies were called into question this week by Steven Milloy, publisher of http://www.JunkScience.com and http://www.CSRwatch.com, a columnist for http://www.FoxNews.com and an adjunct scholar at the CATO Institute, a non-profit public-policy research foundation in Washington, D.C. The research involved nearly 150,000 men and women aged 50 to 74 years who recorded their meat intake in 1982 and again in 1992-93. Milloy said the researchers actually had no conclusion worth reporting after they did an initial analysis of their data. "High intake of red meat reported in 1992/93 was associated with higher risk of colon cancer after adjusting for age and energy intake but not after further adjustment for body mass index, cigarette smoking and other (risk factors)," the researchers said. "Facing the prospect of no result," Milloy says, "I think the researchers then engaged in some slicing-and-dicing of their data in hopes of discovering some statistical correlation they could point to as a 'risk.'"
Comment:
As we reported last week, study co-author, Dr. Michael Thun, the American Cancer Society's epidemiology chief, said the results should be put into perspective: Smoking, obesity and inactivity are still thought to be more strongly linked with colon cancer than eating lots of red meat, he said. But Milloy also questioned the motives of another of the study's authors. "The National Cancer Institute's Rashmi Sinha has a long history of trying to use weak science to convict meat of causing cancer," Milloy said. "It appears that Dr. Sinha remains bent on using her position at the National Cancer Institute to scare us away from eating meat. She's been at it since 1994, but with little to show except a stack of scary, but unsupported headlines." — G.H.
IMO, our obesity problem began back when our "experts" told us to cut back on animal fats. Today the Atkins diet is even taught in medical schools. It's too bad Dr. Atkins didn't live to see the acceptance of his dieting program.
