Dr. Oz: Does Red Meat Give You Cancer?
Dr. Oz talked about whether red meat gives you cancer. Many articles and studies are showing that there is a connection, but Dr. Oz said that we can still enjoy red meat without increasing our cancer risk, as long as we follow his simple steps.
Dr. Oz talked about how we can enjoy red meat without the risk of getting cancer by eating smaller portions, eating greens with it, and marinating it first. (Yulia von Eisenstein / Shutterstock.com)
Arlene grew up eating meat and potatoes and she was excited to meet Dr. Oz. She said these headlines are pretty scary because every week there seems to be something new to worry about. This research is indicating that it doesn’t matter how the red meat is produced, whether it’s been given antibiotics or how it’s been fed. For years, doctors thought the connection had something to do with either the fat content or the way it was cooked.
Instead, it turns out that it’s about sugar. Sugar is a natural part of red meat. The way you cook it does play a factor, but what’s key is the sugar content. Researchers looked at red meat in the lab with rice. When the red meat gets digested, it turns into sugar. This sugar is not something the body recognizes, but nevertheless, this sugar is incorporated into our cells. The immune system then realizes the sugar isn’t ours and attacks it, increasing the inflammation in our body. This is not the cause of cancer, but it’s the equivalent of pouring gas on a fire.
Dr. Oz: Eat Smaller Portions of Red Meat
But good news: we don’t have to get rid of red meat. Instead, we have to eat the right amount. We should eat only three ounces per serving, which is about the size of a deck of cards. If you have lamb instead of beef, you can have 4 ounces, because it has less sugar. Poultry doesn’t have any sugar in it at all, so you can have a lot more of that.
Dr. Oz: Marinate Your Red Meat
We also need to relearn how to prepare meat. It’s important to avoid the charring of the steak, because the charring can lead to cancer. Make sure to marinate your steak first. Dr. Oz suggested marinating it in dark beer, because dark beer has more antioxidants.
Dr. Oz: Eat Greens with Your Meat
Also make sure to eat greens with meat. The greens will help scrub your insides to get rid of any digestive debris. There should be more green than red on your plate.
Chris says
This is one of the most ridiculous pieces of garbage I have ever read. Can you please cite ANY resource where this has been extensively studied, published, and verified by scientists? Or does the word of Oz just make it scientific fact?
https://health.ucsd.edu/news/releases/Pages/2014-12-29-sugar-molecule-in-red-meat-linked-to-cancer.aspx
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/287494.php
Just to help you out a little bit, I can tell you what these articles are saying: red meat has Neu5Gc compound, which is a sugar compound that has been shown to cause cancer IN MICE. To directly quote the first link I posted, “The final proof in humans will be much harder to come by.” I’d also like to point out that the study was done by Ajit Varki and Nissi Varki who “are co-founders and have equity interest in SiaMab Therapeutics, Inc., a biotech company with an interest in Neu5Gc and anti-Neu5Gc antibodies.”
Well… isn’t that odd that they would find results like this?
And finally, I’d like to know, with all these links to cancer with red meat, what are the environments in which these people live and work? What other food are they eating with their red meat? There are an inexhaustible amount of variables in these equations to ever assume that red meat is the sole reason why a person is getting cancer, unless that person literally eats nothing but red meat, and never steps in any kind of environment that could in any way impact their health.
This article is garbage. This “science” is garbage. And Dr. Oz is garbage.