Five burgers a week ups cancer risk

LONDON - Britons will be urged to eat not more than 70g of red meat per day that is equivalent to eating to four gourmet beef burgers to decrease the risk of cancer, following official advice from the Government scientists.

Under recommendations to be issued by the Coalition this week, consumers will be told to eat no more than 500g (1.1lb) of red or processed meat each week, or 70g (2.5oz) a day.

The daily total is the equivalent of three rashers of bacon - while the weekly amount would be reached by eating one large steak, a pork chop, two sausages and a small portion of beef bolognese sauce.

“It is important that people are not put off eating red meat entirely - but it would be irresponsible to ignore the potential health risks. The advice is very clear,” the Scotsman quoted a Coalition source as saying.

The recommendations will follow the publication of a full report by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, which is due within days.

The findings are expected to echo the committee’s draft report, which found that lower consumption of both red and processed meat would probably reduce the risk of bowel cancer.

The experts will say the full study has confirmed the link between higher meat consumption and cancer, but is not able to quantify this fully, partly because of the complexity of the data examined, which stretches back to 1998. (ANI)