Thread: Cured meat cancer warning war

SARAH MUIRHEAD
28/07/2009 9:28:00 AM
ON behalf of three New Jersey consumers, the Physicians Committee for
Responsible Medicine (PCRM) and its Cancer Project filed suit against
five food companies for failing to warn consumers that hot dogs increase
the danger of colorectal cancer.

* Group seeks warning labels on hot dogs.

* PCRM wants labels warning of colon cancer risk.

* Suit based on questionable studies.

* Meat group calls for dismissal of "nuisance" suit.

The class-action consumer fraud lawsuit, filed July 22 in Superior Court
in Essex County, N.J., seeks to compel Nathan's Famous, Kraft
Foods/Oscar Mayer, Sara Lee, ConAgra Foods and Marathon Enterprises to
place cancer risk warning labels on hot dog packages sold in New Jersey.

The groups said the labels should read: "Warning: Consuming hot dogs and
other processed meats increases the risk of cancer."

PCRM is a pro-vegetarian, animal rights group whose membership is
comprised of less than 5pc physicians.

PCRM filed the suit on behalf of three consumers who purchased the
companies' hot dogs without being made aware that processed meat
products are a cause of colorectal cancer.

"Just as tobacco causes lung cancer, processed meats are linked to colon
cancer," said Dr Neal Barnard, president of the Cancer Project.

"Companies that sell hot dogs are well aware of the danger, and their
customers deserve the same information."

PCRM is building its case of a link between cured meats and cancer on
what it calls "landmark scientific studies".

However, those studies have been highly criticized for their faulty
research design.

In fact, a number of cancer researchers and scientists have come out
against an American Institute of Cancer Research (AICR) and World Cancer
Research Fund (WCRF) study that associated consumption of beef, pork and
other red meats and processed meats with cancer.

Scientists with the International Agency for Research on Cancer have
challenged the AICR-WCRF conclusions, charging that the two groups
should have been "more cautious and less definitive" in focusing on
individual foods as opposed to dietary patterns and tobacco use.

The AICR-WCRF report was a follow-up to a 1997 report and was based on
an epidemiological study, or literature review, of cancer studies.

A subsequent study by Exponent Health Sciences found no such cancer/meat
connection.

Nevertheless, the AICR-WCRF report has become the foundation of the
Cancer Project, a long-running campaign of PCRM, in which PCRM has
petitioned the US Department of Agriculture to ban processed meats from
the National School Lunch program.

That effort included a television commercial depicting children in a
school setting who are talking about having colon cancer caused by
eating the hot dogs served in their school cafeteria.

While PCRM has referenced nitrates and nitrites found in cured meats as
carcinogenic, the US National Toxicology Program, following a multi-year
study, came to the opposite conclusion.

Interestingly, more than 90pc of a person's nitrite intake comes from
her or his own saliva and from vegetables, which have health benefits,
according to Dr Nathan Bryan of the University of Texas.

For the past 10 years, Bryan, a medical researcher at the university's
Houston Health Sciences Center, has been working to determine the
importance of dietary nitrite and nitrate consumption as a means to
prevent and treat cardiovascular and other diseases associated with
nitric oxide insufficiency in the diet.

"Nitric oxide is an important signaling molecule in the human body to
regulate numerous physiological functions, including blood flow to
tissues and organs. The conversion of nitrite and nitrate to nitric
oxide in human tissues is obviously an important finding," he said.

Bryan told Feedstuffs that the regular intake of nitrite-containing
foods appears to ensure that blood and tissue levels of nitrite and
nitric oxide pools in the body are maintained at adequate levels.

Even low levels of supplemental nitrite, he said, have been shown to
enhance blood flow.

Dietary sources of nitric oxide metabolites could, therefore, improve
circulation and oxygen delivery, he noted.

Additionally, Bryan said, the dietary inclusion of nitrites and nitrates
appears to provide a rescue or protective pathway for people at risk for
cardiovascular disease.

Compared with leafy green vegetables, cured meats have considerably
lower concentrations of nitrites and nitrates, according to Bryan, but
both can and should be part of a balanced diet.

Suit dismissal

Meanwhile, the American Meat Institute (AMI) is urging the dismissal of
PCRM's "nuisance" lawsuit.

"We hope the court will move quickly to review the science affirming the
safety of hot dogs and processed meats and dismiss this lawsuit,
recognising it for the nuisance that it is," said AMI president J.
Patrick Boyle.

"Meat products are regulated and inspected by USDA and bear the federal
government's seal of inspection, showing that they are wholesome and
nutritious.

"While PCRM argues for warning labels on our safe products, the labels
would be more appropriately placed on PCRM's web sites and press
releases to alert consumers to their true agenda."

Boyle said US dietary guidelines affirm that processed meat and poultry
products - including hot dogs - can be a healthy part of a balanced diet.

PCRM has been widely criticized for its alarmist campaign against hot
dogs and processed meats.

Dr Ron Kleinman, a leading medical expert on childhood nutrition at
Massachusetts General Hospital and former chair of the American Academy
of Pediatrics, has called PCRM's ad featuring child actors claiming that
they have cancer from processed meats "outrageous," and he chastised the
group for exploiting children to achieve its political agenda.



Feedstuffs, USA
Source: http://www.feedstuffs.com