A New Report Disputes any Link Between Eating Red Meat and Breast Cancer

Geoffrey Kabat, whose book Hyping Health Risks: Environmental Hazards in Daily Life and the Science of Epidemiology takes a closer look at recent health scares, was recently a co-author of a study investigating possible links between eating meat and breast cancer in older women.

Published in the International Journal of Cancer, the report, which was based on more than 120,000 post-menopausal women who participated in the study found that breast cancer risk was not associated with intake of total meat, red meat, white meat, processed meat, or meat cooked at high temperatures, or level of doneness of the meat. The researchers note that the study included detailed information on meat preparation methods, and they conclude that their findings “do not support the hypothesis that a high intake of meat, red meat, processed meat, meat cooked at high temperatures, or meat mutagens is associated with increased risk of breast cancer.”