To prevent cancer or treat cancer, you DO NOT need to reduce or avoid red meats or animal foods!

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