More Surf, Less Turf

Opt for the salmon; forego the steak or bratwurst. Opt for the salmon; forego the steak or bratwurst. That’s the message behind a French study showing that the more red and processed meat you eat, the higher your risk of colorectal cancer. Likewise, not eating enough fish also increases your chances of developing the disease. In the study, 50-year-old men and women who consumed more than 5.6 ounces of red and processed meat a day (about the equivalent of a large hamburger) had a 1.71 percent chance of developing colorectal cancer over a 10-year period. The researchers based their findings on a five-year-long examination of the diets and health of more than 478,000 Europeans. The risk for those who ate less than 0.7 ounces a day fell to 1.28 percent. A 2.8-ounce serving of fish a day also keptthe chances of colon cancer down to 1.28 percent. But the risk factor for people whose daily allotment of fish was less than a third of an ounce actually increased to 1.86 percent—right up there with red meat eaters. So, limit your meat intake but don’t skimp on the fish.

Enter a comment related to this article

---