Eating red meat linked to increased colon cancer risk

? High consumption of red meat and processed meat appears to increase the risk of developing colon cancer, according to the largest prospective study to date on the issue.

Researchers said the study, the latest in a series of more than two dozen such scientific reports, provided even more reason for limiting the amount of meat in the diet.

The study, which appears today in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., is one of two articles in the issue that shed more light on the link between diet and cancer risk.

In a separate study, European researchers found that high intake of fruits and vegetables did not protect against breast cancer.

The study involved 285,526 women, aged 20 to 70, from eight countries who were followed for about five years.

The researchers said that while they could not rule out a protective effect from specific types of vegetables and fruits, “this absence of a protective association was observed among almost all of the participating countries.”

While neither study is likely to settle the issue of how big of a role diet plays in getting cancer, the findings are similar to other observational studies over the years.

“The message isn’t that one should eliminate meat from the diet,” said co-author Michael Thun, a physician and head of epidemiological research with the American Cancer Society.

However, Thun and other researchers said it was prudent to reduce intake of meat, especially fatty cuts, and replace it with beans, fish, poultry and lean cuts.

For the study, researchers followed 148,610 people, aged 50-74, for nearly 10 years. The meat-eating habits of the participants were noted at the time the study began and 10 years earlier.

Those who ate the most red meat at both points in time had a 29 percent greater chance of developing cancer in the lower colon than those who ate the least meat. High red-meat consumption was at least 3 ounces (a typical single, fast food burger) a day for men and 2 ounces for women.