How to beat meat’s bad rap

If you’re a meat and potatoes kind of person, then you’ve had a rough go of things. Sure, the rise of the paleo diet has made meat eating more popular among health conscious consumers. But that doesn’t change the fact that scientists continue to find evidence that your love affair with meat is harming your health.

Late last year, the World Health Organization classified red meat as “probably carcinogenic to humans.” And processed meats were classified with even more certainty; they are officially on WHO’s list of foods that are “carcinogenic to humans.”

But you don’t have to take the World Health Organization’s word for it… because more and more researchers are saying the exact same thing.

A recent review of 800 scientific studies published by the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund found that every 1.8 ounces of processed meat you eat per day raises your risk of stomach cancer by 18 percent.

And another study published in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association found that eating more meat leads to a shorter lifespan. Again, the association between premature death and meat consumption was especially connected to eating a lot of processed and red meat.

Right now you’re probably thinking that it’s finally time to put an end to your longtime love affair with meat. But you should know that there is more to the story than meets the eye. It’s probably not the meat itself that’s harming your health but the hidden ingredient it contains: environmental pollutants.

Raw, unprocessed meat is filled with persistent organic pollutants (POPs) like arsenic, cadmium, mercury, lead, dioxins, pesticides and many others. It even contains polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which are considered one of the most dangerous environmental pollutants when it comes to human health.

“We believe this is an issue that is worth taking into account in establishing the global causes of the carcinogenicity of consumption of red and processed meat,” said José Luis Domingo, lead author of the study and researcher in the laboratory of Toxicology and Environmental Health at Rovira i Virgili University in Spain.

But if you feel like you have no control over what harmful ingredients are hiding in your meat, you should know that there are a few best practices you can follow to reduce your exposure to these dangerous carcinogens.

Choosing your meat wisely and cooking it properly can help lower your toxic load. Clearly processed meats are bad news (like all processed food is) so steer clear of those. But there are a few other tricks to healthy red meat consumption…

Animals raised in areas with clean air and pastures contain very little environmental pollutants. So go for grass-fed or pasture-raised meat whenever you can. Also, since environmental pollutants are primarily stored in an animal’s fat, choosing less fatty cuts of meat is definitely a good idea.

And once you’ve chosen a lean, grass-fed cut of meat, you also have to make sure you cook it right. Researchers found that cooking methods that release fat from red meat (like roasting, broiling or grilling) reduce the concentration of pollutants found in the meat… which makes perfect sense since fat is where the environmental pollutants are stored.

But when grilling, be careful not to char your red meat, else you risk producing advanced glycation end products (AGEs). AGEs can stay in your body a long time and have also been linked to cancer. Avoid grilling meats that are considered the worst offenders for carcinogens like hot dogs, bratwurst and other processed meats

If you follow these guidelines you may not have to give up red meat cold turkey after all. Because, despite all the bad press, meat does actually have some nutritional merits. It’s one of the best sources of protein, amino acids, vitamin B12 and iron. But regardless of how much meat you choose to eat, always make sure you’re getting enough fresh fruit and vegetables, which are the true foundation of any healthy diet.

Sources:

1. Véronique Bouvard, Dana Loomis, Kathryn Z Guyton, Yann Grosse, Fatiha El Ghissassi, Lamia Benbrahim-Tallaa, Neela Guha, Heidi Mattock, Kurt Straif, International Agency for Research on Cancer Monograph Working Group. “Carcinogenicity of consumption of red and processed meat.” The Lancet Oncology, 2015.

2. “Continuous Update Project Report: Diet, Nutrition, Physical Activity and Stomach Cancer.” Published April 20, 2016 by World Cancer Research Fund International/American Institute for Cancer Research.

3. Heather Fields, Denise Millstine, Neera Agrwal, Lisa Marks. “Is Meat Killing Us?” The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, 2016; 116 (5): 296.

4. José L. Domingo, Martí Nadal. “Carcinogenicity of consumption of red and processed meat: What about environmental contaminants?” Environmental Research, 2016; 145: 109.