{"id":9916,"date":"2019-03-05T20:09:28","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T18:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carnisostenibili.cvdemo.online\/en\/?p=9916"},"modified":"2019-06-12T11:49:26","modified_gmt":"2019-06-12T09:49:26","slug":"heme-iron-red-meat-cancer-the-association-does-not-exist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carnisostenibili.it\/en\/heme-iron-red-meat-cancer-the-association-does-not-exist\/","title":{"rendered":"Heme iron, red meat, cancer: the association does not exist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

According to a critical review of the\nstudies taken into consideration by the IARC and its many methodological\ninconsistencies, the association among heme iron, red meat and cancer does not\nexist. <\/em><\/strong>Let’s see why.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Red\nmeat<\/strong> is one of the richest and most reliable\nfood sources of heme iron<\/strong>, which is\nthe most assimilable and biologically most useful form to our vital functions<\/strong> compared to non-heme\niron. This endogenous meat compound has however been identified by IARC<\/strong> as a component that could\ntheoretically be responsible for the initiation or promotion of colon cancer<\/strong>, mediated through the\nformation of nitrosamines and \/ or lipid oxidation. Today, however, thanks to a\ncritical review of the studies taken into consideration by the IARC, we finally\nknow that the association among heme\niron, red meat and cancer does not exist<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IARC itself in defining red meat<\/strong> as “probably carcinogenic” only on the basis of 14 cohort studies<\/strong>, had already admitted the limits<\/strong> of this association in humans: limits that also emerge from the study published in 2018<\/a> in the journal “Food and Chemical Toxicology<\/em>” in the<\/strong> specific case of heme iron<\/strong>, on which in vitro studies, animal studies and clinical studies to explore the mechanisms of action have been conducted. What emerges from this review is a methodological problem<\/strong> that has never been highlighted before: the non-congruence between the environment, the dosage and the separation of heme iron or haemin as if they were active ingredients<\/strong>. In practice, the authors have used toxicological protocols as if heme or haemin were “exogenous” active ingredients, whereas in reality they are components of a much more complex matrix<\/strong>, such as food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The review found that most animal\nstudies and even clinical trials used red\nmeat quantities that far exceeded those recommended<\/strong> by all nutritional\nguidelines and therefore with\nexaggerated and unrealistic levels of iron exposure<\/strong>. This meant not only the intake of red meat quantities up to 3\norders of magnitude higher<\/strong> than the recommended doses, but also combined\nwith poor calcium diets and high “bad” fats, conditions designed specifically<\/strong> in the laboratory to recreate\noptimal situations for the production of harmful free radicals with high\noxidative power, but not responding to\nthe reality of a healthy and balanced diet<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nvitro<\/em> studies also overdosed the heme iron\nand moreover they were conducted in an aerobic environment, while to the rats\nused for in vivo<\/em> studies, haemin or haemoglobin<\/strong> were directly\nadministered even in doses 11-360.724\ntimes higher<\/strong> than those contained in the nutritional recommendations of\nmeat red, responding to diets with 1.5-3.5 kg of meat, quantities far away from the realistic ones<\/strong> actually taken on a\nnormal diet. In fact, by bringing the levels back to a normal condition,\ntogether with the supplement of calcium and olive oil and therefore with\nantioxidant protective compounds, the\nneoplastic formations and the cytotoxicity effects have been completely cancelled<\/strong>,\nconfirming the importance of considering the diet in its entirety as it would\nbe in reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To increase the critical points and the methodological inconsistencies<\/strong> there is\nalso another consideration that deserves attention: the nitrous compounds that\nare generated by the excess of heme iron in the diet are not all the same and\nnot all of them have tumorigenic power. In particular, it has been shown that those generated after the ingestion of red\nmeat in humans are not harmful<\/strong>, because they consist of 83-86% of nitrosyl\niron complexes and nitrosothiols, which are\nnot associated with the formation of carcinogenic DNA adducts<\/strong>, because they\npresent a very different chemistry from the other species of N-nitrous\ncompounds, exonerating red meat once\nagain<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, in the revised studies there was also an active role of the intestinal microbiota<\/strong> in the iron-induced\nhyper-proliferation of colon cells, raising doubts about the extrapolation of\nresults in rodents for humans, considering the\nprofound intrinsic differences in the microbiota<\/strong> that make it not correct or\neven impossible to directly report the\neffects obtained in rats directly to humans<\/strong>. In conclusion, all current\nreviews of the methodologies used in the studies considered by the IARC, did not provide sufficient evidence<\/strong> to\nconfirm a mechanistic link between the intake of red meat as part of a healthy\nfood model and the risk of colorectal cancer, because with right red meat levels and within a real diet<\/strong>, with the\nbiologically active protective compounds of foods considered in their entirety,\nthe expression of risk is practically\nnullified<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Susanna Bramante<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agronomist, nutritional consultant and\nscientific writer, author and co-author of 11 scientific publications and\nnumerous articles on human nutrition and its impact on health and environment.\nIn 2010 she received the title of Doctor Europaeus and PhD in Animal\nProduction, Health and Food Hygiene in countries with a Mediterranean climate.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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