Cancer and Meat

Stone Hearth News posted an article about a study published in a December 2013 edition of Nutrients, an online open-access journal, that looked at various foods and cancer risk. Cancer incidence rates from 2008 were assembled by the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization. The cancer data was from 87 countries with high quality data, and 157 countries with just cancer incidence data. The food information was obtained from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Smoking and meat eating were two of the highest risks for cancer, accounting for about half the incidence of cancer. They then broke down the data in quite a lot of detail. If you're interested, I'd refer you to the Stone Hearth summary, where you'll also find links to the original study. 

What we don't know is how much of a difference the type of meat makes. Process meat v. unprocessed meat, organic meat from animals raised in pastures and not given antibiotics v. meat from animals raised on feed lots. We also can't directly say that eating meat causes cancer, as there may have been other contributing factors, such as not consuming enough fruits and vegetables or whole grains. But it is enough information to suggest that a diet high in meat could contribute to cancer.