We were already sad about bacon becoming a cancer causer. Now, it looks like we may need to worry about our barbecued meat, too.
That’s right, all of those summer barbecues have been producing carcinogens for your body to deal with.
A study done by the University of Texas, headed by Dr. Xifeng Wu, professor of epidemiology, found that grilling red meat over a flame can increase your risk of kidney cancer.
Wu said, “Our findings support reducing consumption of meat, especially meat cooked at high temperatures or over an open flame as a public health intervention to reduce RCC risk and burden.”
RCC is renal cancer carcinoma, which is the most common type of kidney cancer. Malignant cells form in tubules of the kidney, and lumps in the abdomen or blood in the urine are the most prominent symptoms.
The research compared diets of 699 healthy people to the diets of 659 patients with renal cell carcinoma. They also compared genetic variants, which played a role in how susceptible people were to the carcinogens.
The findings were telling, and not surprising. “Renal cell carcinoma occurs more frequently in higher income countries than in less developed parts of the world, so it seems probable that it is caused in part by a Western lifestyle,” said Dr. Ian Johnson of the Institute of Food Research.
In addition, those who ate the most processed meat—be it cured, salted, smoked, or preserved—were 17 percent more likely to get bowel cancer.
It looks more and more like meat just isn’t the right way to go for our bodies.
