Many people are advised from some natural cancer groups and websites to avoid eating red meat and animal foods because of some incorrect beliefs that animal foods or meat either causes cancer or causes body acidity which also causes cancer. But animal foods and meat don’t do either of these things!

The World Hoax/Health Organisation (WHO) also lists on their website that processed meats and red meats as a “Probable” carcinogen (WHO, 2015).

So how did one of the world’s most nutrient-dense and traditional foods become labelled as cancer-causing?!

​Because of a ridiculous and poor quality study published in 2011 (Chan et. al., 2011), which used statistical trickery to manipulate study data to come up with a misleading finding. For example, this study looked at the Relative Risk of red and processed meats on colon cancer, colorectal cancer and rectal cancer only. The Relative Risk is a statistical measure of the probability of an outcome between an exposed group and an unexposed/control group. In this study, the researchers found for example, that there was an 18% increase in risk between those who ate red/processed meats who got cancer vs those who didn’t eat red meats. That is what raised alarm bells and caused the useless WHO to label red meats as carcinogenic!

But Relative Risk as a statistical measurement is very misleading, and can be deliberately used in studies like this to find a preconceived outcome when there isn’t really a true outcome. Better quality studies use the Absolute Risk measurement instead.

This study found the risk of people eating red meat and getting cancers was actually just 0.0438%!! A miniscule risk, which is not statistically significant on its own. The risk of people in the control group was actually only 0.0371%, being another insignificant and miniscule risk. But the difference between the control group RR result and meat-eating cancer group was 18%, hence their insane finding that “red meat causes cancer”! Even if the risk of both groups was so close to zero!

The Absolute Risk, being the ACTUAL risk of people who eat red meats, processed meats and animal foods and getting cancer was actually only 0.0067% - no risk at all! There was also NO evidence at all in this study which proved that red meats, processed meats or animal foods actually CAUSED cancer at all! Hence why people really need to know where these ridiculous beliefs come from and why people need to do their own research, and not just believe what various websites or influencers say.

Ironically, the study also highlighted that the rise in colon and colorectal cancers has coincided with economic development and a Western diet and lifestyle! Or in other words, colon cancer is not as common in less developed countries. But meats and animal foods are not just from modern development or a new concept! We’ve been eating animal foods and meats FOREVER! They are amongst the most nutrient-dense foods we can ever eat! The study is finding other possible clues and factors for cancers which are not what they are trying to blame their findings on…

Another interesting theory in the study to explain the issues with red meats and animal foods and cancer is related to the cooking of these foods! High temperature cooking of red meats or animal foods, especially on a barbeque or flame-grilled, produces a number of possibly carcinogenic compounds called Heterocyclic Amines and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, Advanced Glycation End-products and Acrylamides. Ironically, in other studies, these cooking byproducts are also produced from over-heating or baking plant-based foods too! But let’s just blame the red meat…

So is the real issue of red meats and processed meats being associated with cancer (NOTE – NOT “causing” cancer), or is it how these foods are processed or COOKED that’s really the issue?! If so, again it’s NOT the red meat which causes the cancer!

A couple of reasons why I think the idea of actually limiting or avoiding meats and animal foods in cancer is a huge risk include the following:

1. Vitamin B12, only found in animal foods, is needed for your immune system function to produce the lymphocytes which are your natural anti-cancer white blood cells! You really want to make more of these to fight cancer
2. Vitamin B12 is needed for tissue repair and healing, including from cancer surgery, or even physical organ or cell damage from chemotherapy or radiation treatments
3. Red meats are high in iron, and in my experience, 80+% of people with cancer have low iron levels and/or anaemia… and the form of iron in animal foods is much more bioavailable and usable than from plant foods
4. Red meats and animal foods have a high protein content, which is also needed for immune system function, tissue repair and healing, and many other metabolic functions too, to help against cancer and for recovery
5. Red meats and animal foods are very low in carbohydrates, which are found in much higher amounts in all plant foods. Carbs metabolise into glucose, being the main source of fuel for energy and growth and progression of cancer cells. High carbohydrate foods and diets are known to CAUSE cancer as well as feed the cancer cells!

Hence avoiding or stopping intake of red meats and animal foods can have a huge detrimental impact on your immune system function and ability to reverse cancer and recover. This is why I do NOT recommend reducing or avoiding red meat consumption, or even other animal foods (other meats, fish, eggs etc) for the prevention of cancer, or after a cancer diagnosis.

There is another ridiculous belief that animal foods need to be avoided with cancer due to an alleged acidic effect of these foods. This is also untrue and will be discussed in another article soon!

As I usually say, from my experience, there’s ALWAYS a combination of root causes and factors in the development and progression of cancer, which can be a different combination of factors in each person. It’s NEVER just the one cause to cancer development. And it’s not from red meats or animal foods, when these foods have been eaten forever and offer a lot of health benefits!

Stay healthy!

References:

Chan, D. S., Lau, R., Aune, D., Vieira, R., Greenwood, D. C., Kampman, E., & Norat, T. (2011). Red and processed meat and colorectal cancer incidence: meta-analysis of prospective studies. PloS one, 6(6), e20456. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0020456

WHO. (2015). Cancer: Carcinogenicity of the consumption of red meat and processed meat. Retrieved 9th April 2026 from www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/cancer-carcinogenicity-of-the-consumption-of-red-meat-and-processed-meat

A very recent study was published in the Nature journal on the causes of cancer, especially the “modifiable” causes of cancer, being those you have control over or can change. This new study (Fink et al, 2026) suggests that while cancers are a leading cause of mortality and burden on personal and national health budgets, there are 30 modifiable factors which can greatly prevent or reduce the risks of cancer. As such, up to 30% of cancers in women, and over 57% of cancers in men are preventable!

Some of the modifiable factors to prevent cancer include smoking, alcohol intake, having a high body mass index (ie, being overweight), low physical activity, UV radiation, infections, exposure to various toxicities, and more.
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But the study didn’t even look at foods or diets that people eat, of nutrient deficiencies or excesses as modifiable risk factors! So the cancer prevention rates are actually very much higher than stated above!

One study in the past, entitled “Cancer is a preventable disease that requires major lifestyle changes” (Anand et. al, 2008) looked at the cancer prevention rates in a different way, such as the percentage of cancers which may have a genetic cause compared to non-genetic or environmental and lifestyle (ie, modifiable) causes. This study showed that the largest modifiable factors for cancer development were your diet (30-35%), smoking (25-30%), infections (15-20%), and obesity (10-20%), but genetics only contributes a 5-10% risk to cancer development. Therefore 90-95% of cancers are driven by your modifiable choices! Hence in reality, 90-95% of cancers are preventable!

This information is important for prevention of cancers, but also in the treatment of cancers too!

When has a doctor or oncologist ever mentioned how you can reduce your risks of cancer, or improve your chances of recovery from cancer, by recommending dietary and lifestyle improvements which make up 95% of the causes (and treatments!) for cancer?! You can have all the surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatments that doctors recommend, but if you don’t make environmental changes to your diet and lifestyle, you can pretty much guarantee that the cancer will come back. Nobody wants that.
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I have detailed consultations with cancer patients, especially in the initial consultation, to ask a lot of questions to find all the root causes and factors for the cancer development and progression in each person. Then I recommend specific and personalised dietary, lifestyle, and other treatment recommendations. This gives the best possible outcomes for your cancer treatment.

See my website for more information and bookings.

Stay healthy!

References:
Anand, P,. Kunnumakkara, A,B., Sundaram, C., Harikumar, K.B., Tharakan, S.T., Lai, O.S., Sung, B., Aggarwal, B.B. (2008). Cancer is a preventable disease that requires major lifestyle changes. Pharmaceutical Research, 25 (9). DOI: 10.1007/s11095-008-9661-9.

Fink, H., Langselius, O., Vignat, J. Rumgay, H., Rehm, J., Martinez, R.X., Santero, M., Lopez-Perez, L., Inoue, M., Zeng, H., Shield, K., Morgan, E., Ilbawi. A., & Soerjomataram, I. (2026). Global and regional cancer burden attributable to modifiable risk factors to inform prevention. Nature Medicine. DOI: 10.1038/s41591-026-04219-7

Feb 4 is World Cancer Day.
In many people who have cancer, and who have the typical medical "treatments" of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, the cancer often comes back. This can be for a couple of reasons.
The medical treatments focus on the SYMPTOMS, which is the cancer itself. To either cut out the symptom with surgery, or poison the symptom with chemotherapy, or to nuke it with radiation.
For every cancer (or other symptom or condition) there are ALWAYS root causes which triggered the issue and which continue to cause its progression. In fact there's usually a combination of multiple root causes in each person which cause the issue.
But the medical model doesn't work on the root causes. It's not in their training or how they work. At all. They just treat the cancer (the symptom), typically as a standard protocol, which means they are treating the condition or diagnosis, and not you as an individual.
If you don't get your own root causes of your cancer (or other symptom or condition) identified and fixed or removed, then your cancer will return again and again until you do fix those root causes.
Also, the medical "treatments" of chemotherapy and radiation are well known to cause additional toxicity and DNA damage to cells and the body, and to reduce immune system function. These are also causes of why cancers come back.
There are a lot of known causes of cancer, numbered in the many hundreds, which MUST be identified, removed and treated. This can put the brakes on the cancer progression, and to allow the body to start to heal. Treating all the root causes in each person can also prevent cancer recurrence, and for long-term prevention.
To find out more about the many causes of cancer, for prevention or for treatment, I have a 5-hour webinar on this topic!
My Cancer Prevention Webinar 2023 includes the history and statistics of cancer to show how the medical model for cancer isn't working, the many common causes of cancer and the causes of the most common cancers, myths and misinformation about cancer prevention and treatments, testing for cancers, and more. This webinar is for those with cancer and their families, for health practitioners, and those who want to improve their general health and prevent cancer.
Access to the recording is available immediately with a ticket, and you can access this webinar as often as needed and with no expiry. More details here:
http://www.cancernaturopath.com.au/education.html