Cancerous Compromise
American Cancer Society Must End Beef-Promoting
Cattle Barons’ Ball
By Jina Shah, M.D.
This piece was published Oct. 15, 2003, in the Atlanta Journal
Constitution under the headline "Cancer Group Should Steer
Clear of Beef."
What if a major cancer organization decided to raise money by sponsoring
a smoke-a-thon? It’s a simple (if appalling) idea: Donors
would come to a gathering at which they would smoke as many cigarettes
as possible—all to raise funds to fight the very disease their
tobacco habit was causing.
Sounds too bizarre to ever happen, doesn’t it? But the American
Cancer Society has done something just as contradictory here in
Atlanta.
On Oct. 11, the ACS collaborated with the owners of the Buckhead
Beef Company to sponsor the Cattle Barons’ Ball. It was a
first for Atlanta, though the organization holds similar events
around the country. The ball featured pig races and such “ranch-style
cuisine” as beef tenderloin donated by Outback Steakhouse.
The ACS was even organizing a cattle drive to coincide with the
ball, though that was eventually canceled.
As an epidemiologist, I feel compelled to point out the glaring
contradiction here. For decades, scientific journals have published
a steady stream of studies demonstrating that meat consumption dramatically
increases the risk of various types of cancer.
As long ago as 1982, the National Research Council linked dietary
habits—particularly the ingestion of such fatty foods as beef—to
cancer of the breast and other organs. Since then, Harvard studies
that included tens of thousands of people have shown that eating
meat regularly increases colon cancer risk 200 to 300 percent.
New research has underscored the link between breast cancer and
meat consumption. The Journal of the National Cancer Institute
recently reported that the rate of breast cancer among premenopausal
women who ate the most animal (but not vegetable) fat was a third
higher than that of women who ate the least animal fat.
Since 1991, the National Cancer Institute and other partners have
also been promoting the 5 A Day program, which advocates eating
five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables to prevent cancer
and other chronic disease (http://www.5aday.gov/).
All these facts are well known to ACS officials. Indeed, the organization
itself often points out the link between eating meat and getting
cancer. For example, ACS’s “Cancer Facts & Figures
2003” puts it this way: “Many epidemiologic studies
have shown that populations that eat diets high in vegetables and
fruit and low in animal fat, meat, and/or calories have reduced
risk of some of the most common cancers.” According to the
same report, “the best advice is to emphasize whole foods
and the consumption of a mostly plant-based diet.”
Given that evidence, it is deeply troubling to see the organization
raising money by promoting beef.
Charity events allow people to feel good about contributing to
a cause. That’s wonderful. But wouldn’t a gala organized
around peaches be just as fun and much more appropriate?
The need for money is also no defense. The Cattle Barons’
Ball events may be a cash cow for ACS, but promoting unhealthy diets
will cost us all dearly in medical bills and personal tragedy. Here
in Georgia, the ACS says we should expect more than 33,000 new cases
of cancer this year. Nationwide, cancer will kill about 1,500 people
a day in 2003, and at least one-third of these deaths will be due
to dietary factors.
Such numbers leave the ACS to confront one basic question: How
can Americans be expected to change their unhealthy dining habits
if cancer society officials can’t change theirs?
Jina Shah, M.D., MPH, is a family physician and epidemiologist
currently working in the field of public health in Atlanta. She
is a member of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
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