8 Reasons to Stop Eating Meat on World Cancer Day

Today is World Cancer Day, an opportunity to raise awareness about the causes of cancer, which is still one of Britains’ biggest killers. In an article in the Independent today, Dr Neal Barnard, President of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, explains that eating meat is up there with smoking as a lifestyle choice that increases our risk of this devastating disease.

Going vegan is one of the most effective ways to protect our health – here are some key points from Dr Barnard’s article that explain why:

1. Unlike foods from plants that enhance our health, meat and dairy products have the same hazards as cigarette smoking, including increased risks of strokes, heart disease and cancer.
2. According to the World Health Organisation, dietary factors account for at least 30 per cent of all cancer in Western countries and up to 20 per cent in developing countries.
3. Studies in Germany and the UK have shown that vegetarians are about 40 per cent less likely to develop cancer compared to meat-eaters.
4. Processed meat, such as bacon, sausage and ham, is so strongly linked with bowel cancer – the second-most deadly cancer in the UK – that no one should ever eat it, according to a recent report by the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research.
5. Countries with a higher intake of fat, especially fat from animals, such as meat and dairy products, have a higher incidence of breast cancer.
6. The high fat content of meat and dairy products boosts hormone production, which increases the risk of hormone-related cancer, such as breast and prostate cancer.
7. Vitamin C, found in citrus fruits and many vegetables, may lower risks for cancer of the esophagus and stomach by neutralising cancer-causing chemicals formed in the body and blocking the conversion of nitrates to carcinogenic nitrosamines in the stomach.
8. Carotenoids, the pigments that give fruits and vegetables their colors, have been shown to help protect against lung cancer and may help prevent cancer of the bladder, mouth, larynx, esophagus and breast as well.

Read the full article here, then help protect yourself against the harmful effects of eating meat and animal products – pledge to go vegan.