The 2011 World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) was the result of a five-year process by an international panel of the world’s leading scientists covering over 7,000 studies on cancer. It is the biggest diet review on cancer evidence in history. It was funded using money raised from the general public so the findings were not influenced by any vested interests (such as food corporations, beverage sellers or meat marketing boards).

The basic summary of the report?

1. Processed meats increase your risk of cancer – especially bowel cancer
2. NO amount of processed meat is safe for human health
3. The more meat you eat; the more heart disease, strokes, heart attacks, cancer and coronary problems you will suffer

How bad is eating processed meat…?

• Doubles diabetes and stomach cancer risk
• Raises heart disease risk by 50% 
• Raises colon cancer risk by 60% 
• Raises lung disease risk by up to 93% 
• Raises bladder cancer risk by 250% 
• Raises childhood asthma risk by 75% 
• Raises your risk of early death by over 30%

There is a vast amount of evidence that eating a plant-based wholefood diet lowers, and in some cases, reverses, heart disease and hypertension. This has been shown in the fasting studies, the chicken studies, the saturated fats studies, the fibre studies, the plant-based eating studies, and of course, the meat-is-directly-linked-to-heart-disease studies.

Plant-Based Diets & the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease – Journal of the American College of Cardiology

Nutrition Report: An Evaluation of NCD Prevention Research in the United States on Human Health

A healthy plant-based diet is simply mostly eating ‘plant-based wholefoods’ – such as apples rather than apple juice – as these are plant foods in their natural state, unrefined, and with their natural fibres, antioxidants, polyphenols, vitamins and minerals intact. Eat mostly plant foods, mostly wholefoods, and you receive the benefits, as the centenarian cultures do:

Healthy Plant-Based Diets – what does it mean – Journal of the American College of Cardiology

Plant-based diets are crucial as a solution to our health crisis

How plant-based diets can prevent non-communicable diseases (NCDs)

Practical tips for preparing healthy plant-based meals

Cancer

Diet, Nutrition, Physical Activity and Cancer: a Global Perspective (the Third Expert Report – 2019) is a comprehensive analysis, using the most meticulous methods, of the worldwide body of evidence on preventing and surviving cancer through diet, nutrition and physical activity. It builds on the ground-breaking achievements of the First and Second Expert Reports, published in 1997 and 2007 respectively.

Diet, Nutrition, Physical Activity & Cancer – A Global Perspective – Summary-third-expert-report

World Cancer Research Fund & American Institute for Cancer Research UPDATE Cancer-Prevention-Recommendations-2018

2019 International Research ‘Preventable Cancer Burden Associated with Poor Diet in the United States’

GOLDEN Rule 1: Be Prepared and Control your Environment

GOLDEN Rule 3: Honour Thy Bowel 

GOLDEN Rule 4: Give up what Weakens You

GOLDEN Rule 7: Eat a Local, Balanced, Plant-Based Wholefood Diet

Processed meat increases bowel cancer, diabetes and heart disease risk by 50%-200% 

Eating meat daily means a 40% higher bowel cancer risk

Eating meat linked again strongly to obesity

Meat consumption increases the risk of cancer

White meat like chicken is no better than red meat

Why do I recommend a balanced, healthy, plant-based wholefood lifestyle?

Chicken delivers weight gain – not weight loss

The scientific opinion on eating a plant-based wholefood diet

Chicken, saturated fat and breast cancer

The Health Benefits of a Plant-Based Wholefood Diet

We are eating 10x more chicken and we are the most overweight people in the world…

Golden Rule 7: Eat a Local, Seasonal, Balanced, Plant-based Wholefood Diet.

Heart Disease Cured By Plant-Based Diets: References

Plant-Based Diets Prevent Disease: References

Chicken, Meat, Weight Gain & Breast Cancer: References

Bowel Health Is Critical To Longevity: References

Cancer links to Diet, Lifestyle & the Environment: References

Meat & Diabetes References:

• “Meat consumption and the risk of type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies” by Aune D, Ursin G, Veierød MB as published in 2009 Nov;52(11):2277-87. doi: 10.1007/s00125-009-1481-x. Epub 2009 Aug 7, 2009, by researchers at the Department of Biostatistics, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, in Norway.
• Tonstad, S., Butler, T., Yan, R. and Fraser, G.E., ‘Type of vegetarian diet, body weight, and prevalence of type 2 diabetes.’ Diabetes Care, 2009, 32(5):791–796.
• “Dietary patterns, meat intake, and the risk of type 2 diabetes in women” by Fung TT, Schulze M, Manson JE, Willett WC, Hu FB, as published in the Archives of Internal Medicine 2004 Nov 8;164(20):2235-40. 
• “A prospective study of red meat consumption and type 2 diabetes in middle-aged and elderly women: the women’s health study” by Song Y, Manson JE, Buring JE, Liu S from the Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, as published in Diabetes Care. 2004 Sep;27(9):2108-15. The study looked at 8.8 years’ worth of data (326,876 person-years of follow-up) on 37,309 participants in the Women’s Health Study.
• Steinmetz, K.A., et al., a review of over 206 epidemiological studies. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 1996, 96 (10):1027–39. Also see, Potter, J.D., ‘Vegetables, fruit, and cancer.’ Lancet, August 2005, 366(9485): 527–30. Also, Smith-Warner, S.A., et al., ‘Fruits, vegetables, and adenomatous polyps: the Minnesota Cancer Prevention Research Unit case-control study.’ American Journal of Epidemiology, 155(12): 1104–13, June 2002.
• Pan, An, et al., ‘Red Meat Consumption and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: 3 Cohorts of U.S. Adults and an Updated Meta-Analysis.’ American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 10 August 2011.
• Pan, A, et al., ‘Changes in red meat consumption and subsequent risk of type II diabetes mellitus three cohorts of US men and women.’ JAMA Internal Medicine, DOI:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.6633.
• Evans, W.J., ‘Oxygen-carrying proteins in meat and risk of diabetes mellitus.’ JAMA, DOI:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.7399.
• “Red Meat Consumption and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: 3 Cohorts of U.S. Adults and an Updated Meta-Analysis,” An Pan, et al., was published 10 August 2011 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The large study was led by An Pan, research fellow in the Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Nutrition, and Dr. Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health. The research included 37,083 men followed for 20 years in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study; 79,570 women followed for 28 years in the Nurses’ Health Study I; and 87,504 women followed for 14 years in the Nurses’ Health Study II.
• “Meats, processed meats, obesity, weight gain and occurrence of diabetes among adults: findings from Adventist Health Studies”, as published in Ann Nutr Metab. 2008;52(2):96-104 and Ann Nutr Metab. 2010;56(3):232., by Vang A, Singh PN, Lee JW, Haddad EH, Brinegar CH from the Department of Health Promotion and Education, School of Public Health, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA 92350, USA. This research was “a prospective cohort study examining the relation between diet and incident diabetes recorded among 8,401 cohort members (ages 45-88 years) of the Adventist Mortality Study and Adventist Health Study”.
• “Meat consumption and the risk of type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies” by Aune D, Ursin G, Veierød MB as published in Diabetologia. 2009 Nov;52(11):2277-87. doi: 10.1007/s00125-009-1481-x. Epub 2009 Aug 7, 2009, by researchers at the Department of Biostatistics, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, in Norway. Åkesson, Agneta, et al., ‘Combined Effect of Low-Risk Dietary and Lifestyle Behaviours in Primary Prevention of Myocardial Infarction in Women.’ Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, Archives of Internal Medicine, Vol. 167, No. 19, 22 October 2007.
• Study by the University of Washington School of Medicine was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2012.  Nearly 50% of Native Americans develop diabetes by age 55.  The researchers surveyed 2,000 Native Americans without diabetes from Arizona, Oklahoma and North and South Dakota about their diets.  After five years, a follow-up survey found that 243 people had developed diabetes.  Among the 500 people in the original study group who ate the most canned processed meat, 85 developed diabetes.  In contrast, those who ate the least amount, just 44 developed the disease.  The people who ate the most processed meats tended also to be heavier with larger waistlines.  Canned meat is available freely to many Native Americans on reservations as part of the US Department of Agriculture food assistance program.  Dariush Mozaffarian, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and his colleagues conducted a 2009 analysis that found that processed meats were tied to a 19% higher diabetes risk.  Article originally titled “’Spam’ meat tied to diabetes risk in Native Americans, study finds” as reported by foxnews.com and Reuters on January 31, 2012.
• “Dietary fat and meat intake in relation to risk of type 2 diabetes in men” by van Dam RM, Willett WC, Rimm EB, Stampfer MJ, and Hu FB from the Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts USA, as published in Diabetes Care. 2002 Mar;25(3):417-24. 
• Study by Dr Wei Bao, PhD, as published the study in Diabetes Care, February 1, 2013. After adjustment for weight, age, dietary factors, including fat and cholesterol intake, and other cofounders, for 15,294 women, greater consumption of animal protein was associated with significantly increased GDM risk, while higher vegetable protein intake was associated with significantly reduced risk. This study was funded by the Intramural Research Program of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health. The Nurses’ Health Study II was funded by research grants from the National Institutes of Health. As reported by Medscape on February 6, 2013.
• Study paper published in medical journal The Lancet, 2012. “In the last 20 years, diabetes has developed a lot, but it’s only now showing up in the medical system,” said Dr Tong Xiaolin, vice director of the Guanganmen Hospital in Beijing. There are now about 92 million diabetics in China but that is expected to rise to 130 million by 2030. “We were very surprised and couldn’t believe how fast it grew,” said Peking Union Medical College Hospital specialist Xiang Hongding. As reported by Reuters and thechicagotribune.com on March 254, 2012. 
• Study by epidemiologist Jared Reis, PhD, and colleagues, analyzed data collected from more than 200,000 adults in the U.S. aged 50 to 71 over a period of 11 years, as conducted by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health. The research confirmed yet again that the combination of healthy lifestyle habits can reduce the risk of developing type II diabetes by about 80%. As reported on November 18 2011.

Meat & Cancer, Stroke & Cardiometabolic Disease References:

• World Cancer Research Fund International, ‘Continuous Update Project Report: Diet, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Breast Cancer Survivors 2014.’ Study based on the findings of the CUP Breast Cancer Survivors Systematic Literature Review (SLR) and the CUP Expert Panel discussion in June 2013; total number of women in the 85 studies reviewed was 164,416; WHO. Breast Cancer: prevention and control, 2014.
• The 2010 Global Burden of Disease Study, The Lancet; 2010 Heart and Stroke Statistics Report, The American Heart Association and the WHO.
• Norat, T., Riboli, E., ‘Meat consumption and colorectal cancer: a review of epidemiologic evidence.’ Nutrition Reviews, 2001, 59(2):37–47.
• Esselstyn, C.B. and colleagues, ‘A way to reverse CAD?’ Cleveland Clinic. Journal of Family Practice 2014, 63(7):356–364.
• Dr Michael Miedema, ‘Eating fruits, vegetables linked to healthier arteries later in life.’ The American College of Cardiology and ScienceDaily, 28 March 2014.
• Study by researchers on data from 93,600 women aged 25–42 enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study II, Harvard School of Public Health and University of East Anglia, UK. Circulation, 2013.
• Pettersen, B.J., Anousheh, R. and Fan, J., et al., ‘Vegetarian diets and blood pressure among white subjects: results from the Adventist Health Study-2 (AHS-2).’ Public Health Nutrition, 2012, ;15(10):1909–1916. The Adventist Health Study is a cohort investigation that has been tracking since 1974. Researchers at the Center for Health Research, headquarters for the Adventist Health Study, and every scientist, researcher, doctor and professor has agreed that the lifestyle these people follow is amongst the healthiest in the world and it gives the Adventists strong protection against all the deadly diseases that are crippling the modern world while delivering ten times more centenarians than the US average.
• Tantamango-Bartley, Y., Jaceldo-Siegl, K., Fan, J., Fraser, G., ‘Vegetarian diets and the incidence of cancer in a low-risk population.’ Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Previews, 2013, 22:286–94.
• Key, T.J., Appleby, P.N., Crowe, F.L., Bradbury, K.E., Schmidt, J.A., Travis, R.C., ‘Cancer in British vegetarians: updated analyses of 4998 incident cancers in a cohort of 32,491 meat eaters, 8612 fish eaters, 18,298 vegetarians and 2246 vegans.’ American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 4 June 2014.
• Armstrong and R. Doll, ‘Environmental factors and cancer incidence and mortality in different countries, with special reference to dietary practices.’ International Journal of Cancer, 1975, 15:617–31.
• Cho, E., Chen, W.Y., Hunter, D.J., Stampfer, M.J., Colditz, G.A., Hankinson, S.E., et al., ‘Red meat intake and risk of breast cancer among premenopausal women.’ Archives of Internal Medicine, 2006, 166:2253–9.
• Swedish study by Bellavia, A., Larsson, S.C., Bottai, M., Wolk, A., Orsini, N., ‘Fruit and vegetable consumption and all-cause mortality: a dose-response analysis.’ American Journal of Clinical Nutrition online, 26 June 2013.
• Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1988–1994, analysed by Rathod, A.D., et al., ‘Healthy eating index and mortality in a nationally representative elderly cohort.’ Archives of Internal Medicine, 2012, 172(3): 275–277.
• Journal of Nutrition, Vol. 136, pp. 2606–2610.
• American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, online, 18 May 2011.
• Public Health Nutrition, 2003, Vol. 6, pp. 453–461.
• Chernomorsky, S., et al., ‘Effect of Dietary Chlorophyll Derivatives on Mutagenesis and Tumour Cell Growth.’ Teratogenesis, Carcinogenesis, and Mutagenesis, 79:313–322, 1999.
• Vlad, M., et al., ‘Effect of Cuprofilin on Experimental Atherosclerosis.’ Romania, Institute of Public Health and Medical Research, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoka, 1995.
• Study analysis from an international retrospective case-control study of acute nonfatal MI, the INTERHEART study, as well as FINRISK, of cardiovascular disease in Finland, by Do, R., et al., ‘The effect of chromosome 9p21 variants on cardiovascular disease may be modified by dietary intake: Evidence from a case/control and a prospective study.’ PLoS Medicine 2011, 9(10): e1001106.
• Hung H.C., Joshipura, K.J., Jiang, R., ‘Fruit and vegetable intake and risk of major chronic disease.’ Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2004, 96:1577–1584.
• N. Mitrou, V. Kipnis, A.C.M. Thiebaut, J. Reedy, A.F. Subar, E. Wirfalt, A. Flood, T. Mouw, A.R. Hollenbeck, M.F. Leitzmann, A. Schatzkin, ‘Mediterranean Dietary Pattern and Prediction of All-Cause Mortality in a US Population — Results From the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study.’ Archives of Internal Medicine, Vol. 167, No. 22, pp. 2461–2468.
• Rautiainen S. and fellow researchers, study on the Swedish Mammography Cohort, ‘Total antioxidant capacity of diet and risk of stroke: A population-based prospective cohort study.’ Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, 2011.
• Study by Dr Frank B. Hu, of the departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, on 833,234 people. BMJ, 2014, 349:g4490, 29 July 2014.
• Daniel Imhoff (ed.), From CAFO: The Tragedy of Industrial Animal Factories, Watershed Media and the Foundation for Deep Ecology. A book on Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO), 2010.
• Feng He, MBBS, PhD, et al., ‘Effect of longer-term modest salt reduction on blood pressure: Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials.’ Queen Mary University of London, British Medical Journal, 2013, DOI:10.1136/bmj.f1325.

Jason wishes to deeply thank, acknowledge and recognise the effort and contribution that the PIF Foundation has provided on a voluntary basis since 2014, as we educated, motivated and inspired change that helps transform the health, vitality and longevity of people all over the world.