Eating meat is good for your health

Thank you for the warm welcomeand advice. Hopefully my argument is sufficient regarding the rules and regulations. If not, perhaps we can try again in future when I have more experience.Although meat is not limited to red meats, I will be focussing most of my argument around red meats and processed meats given that these are the most vastly consumed meats in most developed western nations [1]. Commonly consumed non-red meats are chicken and fish, the former mainly in processed form (therefore coming under processed meats). I will argue that although there may be some beneficial constituents in these meats, the cons outweigh the pros making meat consumption bad for our health overall. The pieces of evidence in support of this position areepidemiological, experimental, and mechanistic in nature. The World Cancer Research Fund's 2007 (and more recent updates) report "Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective" was prepared by over 150 of the worlds scientists from 30 different countries, and summarized over 7000 peer-reviewed publications (epidemiological, mechanistic and experimental in origin). The report states that the evidence for red meat intake increasing colorectal cancer risk is 'convincing'[2]. Although this link was found at consumption levels above 300g per week (significantly less thangeneral western average consumption; see reference [1]), the report states that there is no safe level of consumption for processed meats. Some epidemiological evidence: A 2011 study with nearly half a million participants found the highest red meat consumers to have a 19% increased risk of kidney cancer [3]. A 21 year follow up study of around 30,000 participants found daily red meat consumers to have a 60% higher risk of dying from heart disease than those eating meat less than once per week [4]. Significant associations between red meat consumption and coronary heart disease have been found in multiple large scale studies [5][6]. A 2009 study of over 500,000 people by the National Cancer Institute found the same correlation between consumption of red meat and increased cardiovascular related mortality, as well as overall mortality. This year (2012), a study was published in the Harvard Annals of Internal Medicine that followed over 120,000 participants for 22 - 28 years. The study reported red meat consumption was associated with "increased risk of total, cardivascular, and cancer mortality". The results remained significant after factoring for smoking, physical activity levels, obesity, alcohol consumption and other possible confounds [7]. Some mechanistic and experimental research: Zaidi, Kumar & Rawat (2012) report that to date, more than 24 types of mutagens have been identified as constituents of cooked meat products, including non-red meats such as chicken [8]. DNA damage has been characterized in cells excreted in the faeces after a meat meal, compared to non-meat consuming controls [9]. Although research showed that cruciferous vegetables reduced DNA damage in colorectal cells, damage was not reduced elsewhere and was not completely eliminated in the cells where it was reduced. Lastly, as mentioned above these meat products contain nitrosamines among other mutagens. Nitrosamines are known to alkylate guanine nitrogenous bases in DNA, causing G C -T A transversions. These such transversions are amongst the most common mutations found in human cancer cells [10] In conclusion:The research discussed in full above is by no means exhaustive, as mentioned in the WCRF report alone over 7000 studies were reviewed and summarized, and I do not have the space or time to present such a thoroughsummary here. Whatever health benefits come from these products, epidemiological research strongly suggests that these are outweighed by the negative implications of such consumption. Characterization of mutagens present in meat products, as well as experimental research where DNA damage from human cells has been observed after meat consumption, together provide not only evidence that those who consume meat get more diseases, and die earlier, but provides insight into the specific mechanisms involved. References: [1] http://www.fao.org... [2] http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk... [3] Daniel, C. R.; Cross, A. J.; Graubard, B. I.; Park, Y.; Ward, M. H.; Rothman, N.; Hollenbeck, A. R.; Chow, W. -H. et al. (2011). "Large prospective investigation of meat intake, related mutagens, and risk of renal cell carcinoma". American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 95 (1): 155–162.www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3238458/. [4] Kahn, H. A.; Phillips, R. L.; Snowdon, D. A.; Choi, W. (1984). "Association between reported diet and all-cause mortality. Twenty-one-year follow-up on 27,530 adult Seventh-Day Adventists". American Journal of Epidemiology 119 (5): 775–787. [5] Menotti A, Kromhout D, Blackburn H, Fidanza F, Buzina R, Nissinen A, for the Seven Countries Study Research Group (1999). Food intake patterns and 25-year mortality from coronary heart disease: Cross-cultural correlations in the Seven Countries Study. Eur J Epidemiol 15, 507–515. [6] Zyriax BC, Boeing H, Windler E (2005). Nutrition is a powerful independent risk factor for coronary heart disease in women-The CORA study: a population-based case–control study. Eur J Clin Nutr 59, 1201–1207. [7] Red Meat Consumption and Mortality; An Pan, Qi Sun, Adam M. Bernstein, Matthias B. Schulze, JoAnn E. Manson, Meir J. Stampfer, Walter C. Willett, Frank B. Hu, Archives of Internal Medicine, online March 12, 2012 [8] Zaidi R, Kumar S, Rawat PR (2012)Rapid detection and quantification of dietary mutagens in food using mass spectrometry and ultra performance liquid chromatography. Department of Biochemistry, Jamia Hamdard (Hamdard University), New Delhi 110062, India. [9] Daniel T. Shaughnessy, Lisa M. Gangarosa, Barbara Schliebe, David M. Umbach, Zongli Xu, Beth MacIntosh, Mark G. Knize, Peggy P. Matthews, Adam E. Swank, Robert S. Sandler, David M. DeMarini, Jack A. Taylor (2011) Inhibition of Fried Meat-Induced Colorectal DNA Damage and Altered Systemic Genotoxicity in Humans by Crucifers, Chlorophyllin, and Yogurt. And: Vanden Bussche J, Moore S.A., Pasmans F., Kuhnle G.G.C., Vanhaecke L. An approach based on ultra-high pressure liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry to quantify O6-methyl and O6-carboxymethlguanine DNA adducts in intestinal cell lines. [10] See Watson J, Molecular Biology of the Gene. All the best. I anxiously await my opponent's response.