There are times when I forget why I stopped eating red meat. Obviously, I wanted to eat healthier, but that’s something of an amorphous goal when you’re looking back at the last 10 months and seeing a lot of bad luck that led to hospital time, some lesser food poisonings, and a couple bouts with disguised beef products.

Is it really healthier for you if you keep having bad luck and feeling like crap for days because of it?

Well, yes.

The link between red meat consumption and prostate cancer is nothing new, however a new study by a group of researchers at Johns Hopkins University may have just discovered what the link is (2). This study, appearing in the journal, Cancer Research, shows that a gene involved in digesting red meat is also active in prostate cancer tumors. The gene, AMACR, which produces an enzyme used to break down a fatty acid present in beef and dairy products, is present in nine times the normal prevalence in prostate tumors. The suspicion would be that the gene is somehow behind the prostate tumor growth and that by cutting down on beef and dairy the production of the gene could be slowed down.

Sometimes, I just need a reminder. Long term, I’m making the right choice.

I just wish my stomach would settle the hell down.

The problem with stopping the red meat consumption is that you have to be careful to really replace the hole you leave in your diet. I stopped for a few years (although I'm eating it again, mostly because I don't like depriving myself of things I really like), but while I wasn't eating it, I had to find a lot of similar foods (beans, etc.). I'm sure you've heard it all before, though. Just wanted to say hi, and don't give up. It is the right thing, if you can do it properly.

*sigh* So now I have to give my vegitarian friends credit for saving my balls, eh?

That comment about 'replacing the hole' is a good one, and explains why I sometimes crave pinto burritos et al.

Zinc. I should really make sure I'm eating enough stuff with zinc. (Although I usually pop a zinc lozenge one a week or so.)

Stopping eating things I like: yeah, I used to really really jones on BK Whoppers with cheese. Good stuff. Now I can't even eat chicken at BK, cuz they cook it on the same grill as the burgers (in some places), and it gets the beef grease on it...

Cue sick.

I found replacements. In some cases, better replacements. Turkey burgers kick ass, and are so much better for you than the typical U.S. ground beef, which is so fatty it's disgusting (and was even when I ate beef).

KFC's my replacement vice. Not exactly good for you, but some of the sandswiches, the ones without the breading and so forth... pretty good stuff.

And pork chops on the grill. Mmmm.

Turkeyburgers are good stuff. And, yes, pork chops.

Hmmm. The article (such as it is abstracted) also implies dairy is a culprit. No indication (in the abstract) as to whether actual consumption of meat and dairy actually reduces the amount of gene described, or what the actual delta in prostate cancer chances works out to be.

(I'd also be a bit concerned about drawing too much health info from the "Whole Health Discount Center" Health News bulletin, unless you're also going to start popping saw palmetto pills, too. But that's just curmudegonly me.)

Added a few more sources for the same story.

Cool. Thanks.

Hrm.

Problem with all this is that both I and the article have, I think, oversimplified.

I didn't know about this study (obviously) when I made the meat decision... All I knew at the time, nice and unspecific, was that high intake of red meat (more specifically the kind of iron you get from eating red meat) was connected to high risk for heart disease and cancer. Also (of course) there were the studies connecting cardiovascular diseases -- including atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), heart attacks and strokes -- with cholesterol and saturated fats, which US Beef is... well let's say they aren't natural lean.*

(* The simple reason for this is that American beed is Grain-feed. Beef from elsewhere (and U.S. Buffalo, btw) is grass-fed, and much much leaner.)

Also, the articles broad lumping of redmeat with dairy can't be entirely accurate: I can eat cheese and drink milk (2%) with no adverse affects, although granted I don't drink a lot of milk, and since it's 2%, the 'fatty' party doesn't come up nearly to the level that a single USD-Choice hamburger would.

Bah, who knows? I feel a little better today.

Just a comment on US vs. South American (the largest foriegn source of beef for the US). The USDA has very restrictive medication (antibiotics and growth hormones) rules for domestic beef producers. Imported meat is tested for bacteria, but not residual med levels. The precoooked meat found in prepared meals (healthy choice, Stoffers, etc) is not even tested for bacteria.