Can Meat Increase Your Risk of Cancer?
Our diet, directly or indirectly, determines our state of health. While diseases like diabetes and heart ailments have been associated with imperfect diets, cancer had not been really linked with the foods that we eat till now. A recent study brought to light that a diet with excessive dairy and meat products could increase the risk of cancer. The shocking revelation was made by a team of researchers led by Dr Vered Padler-Karavani of the Department of Cell Research and Immunology at the Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research at Tel Aviv University’s George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences. The findings were published in journal – BMC Medicine.
The researchers found a direct molecular link between meat and dairy diets and the development of antibodies in the blood that increase the risk of developing cancer. High amounts of red meat and cheese were found to be the culprits. It is known that humans develop antibodies to Neu5Gc, a sugar molecule, during infancy when they are exposed to dairy and meat for the first time. These antibodies were found to have a relationship with cancer, especially, colorectal cancer.
Excerpted from NDTV Food
