Science

and life
Members: Jos Bravo
Juan Reyes
Claudio Reyes
Francisca Santelices
Grade: 4th A
Scientific article: Meat and cancer

Is equally bad the worst sausage than the best ham?

The IARC (International Agency For Research on Cancer) has published a notice
that describes the principal results of the study and a summary about itself in the
medical magazine The Lancet Oncology. There are a lot of details about the work
that only will be shown when the IARC publish the monographic study, in a few
months. The definition of processed food given by the IARC in the notice does not
set apart between the quality of the used products, so in the group will enter all
kind of sausage, since the worst sausage until the best ham. The same happens
with the minced meat. The professor of Public Health of the Autonome University of
Barcelona Miquel Porta believes that the burgers enter in this category, but isnt
the same one of high quality than another with a high level of industrial process
What is the red meat?
The WHO considers read meat as the comes of the muscle of a mammal, it
includes the bacon, lamb, pig, horse and goat.
What makes the processed food so harmful to our health?
Probably the worst fact is the sodium nitrate. We use the nitrate as an additive in
the meats for three reasons:
-To keep the color
-To upgrade the taste through the suppress of the rancidity
This threes fact sound cool, isnt it? Unfortunately, it isnt the only thing that nitrate
is doing
According to Katherine Zeratsky, an investigator of Mayo Clinic, the sodium nitrate
harms the blood vessels, hardens and narrows the arteries, and changes the way
of how our body processes the sweets, incrementing the risk of diabetes.
The nitrate can be dangerous for the way in that integrates us to the proteins of the
meals we eat. The combination of protein-nitrate sometimes converts inside of our
body in nitrosamines, a carcinogenic.
In addition, high levels of sodium in the diet can lead to very unpleasant health
problems. A single serving of processed meat can occur from 310 to 480 milligrams
of sodium, that when they join the sodium ingested in other food of the day, can
easily contribute to develop high blood pressure or increase the risk of having a
cardiovascular accident. Even without the complications of hypertension, a high
sodium diet is related to certain adverse effects on organs, which can affect the

heart, kidneys, brain and blood vessels. Another problem is that you due to
production methods, processed meat tends to have huge amounts of saturated fat
and calories. Salami, sausages and sausages are usually more fat products
possess. And finally, there is a risk factor very important that has to do with how the
meat used for these foods is produced. In the corrals where fattening cows
(industrial installations where is fed to cattle with grain), thousands of cows live
literally shoulder to shoulder. Since they do not have designated areas for you
defecation, they stand on their stools every day. This increases the risk of that
micro-organisms and other pathogens are passed from an animal to another. The
Hamburger you eat really does not come from a single cow. It is the product of
dozens or hundreds of cows whose meat was processed together to obtain the
mass that the Hamburger you eat will be prepared. This means an increase in the
possibility that listeria, E. Coli or Salmonella end up in food.

Interview to Ronald Anderson, famous doctor

Whats the processed meat?

The processed meat is the meat that has been transformed by the salting, the
cured, the fermentation, the smoky or another processes to upgrade his taste or
his conservation. The most of the processed meats contain pigs meat or beefs
meat, also they can have another red meats.
What is considered red meat?
Red meat is all the muscular meat of the mammals, including cow, beef, pork,
lamb, horse and goat.
Can you tell us why the WHO chose to evaluate the red meat and the
processed meat?
A International Advisory Committee reunited in 2014 to recommend the red meat
and the processed meat as high priority problem, this election will make faster the
evaluation in the Program of Monographs of the WHO. Despite these risks are
minor, to the public health could be important because many people in the world
eat food and the meat consume is growing up in the 3rd world countries.
Does the methods to cook the meat modify the risk?
The ways to cook at a high temperature generate compound that can contribute to
have cancer, but his objective isnt understood completely.
Can you name which are the safest ways to cook meat?
Cook at high temperatures or with food in direct contact with a flame or a hot area,
like barbeque, produces more type of cancer chemicals.
The red meat has been classified in the Group 2A, probably carcinogenic to
the human being. Can you explain us what does it mean?
In red meat case, the classification take the limited evidence of epidemical studies
that show a positive association between the consume of red meat and the
development of cancer.
The processed meat has been classified in the Group 1, carcinogenic to the
human being. It clearly dangerous, would you explain the meaning of it?
This category applies when we have enough evidence of cancer in humans. I
mean, we have convenient proofs of cancer in people.
In the case of processed meat, this classification is based on enough evidence
from epidemiological studies that show that the consumption of processed meat,
as I mentioned earlier, causes colorectal cancer.
-Processed meat was classified as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1).
Tobacco and asbestos are also classified as carcinogenic to humans (Group

1). It means that the consumption of processed meat is as carcinogenic as

tobacco and asbestos?
No, it is classified to the meat processed in the same category as causes of
cancer, such as tobacco and asbestos (IARC group 1, carcinogenic to humans),
but this does not mean are equally dangerous. The IARC classifications described
the strength of the scientific evidence for an agent to be a cause of cancer, rather
than to assess the level of risk.
-What types of cancer are related or associated with the consumption of red
meat?
The strongest evidence, although still limited, in association with the consumption
of red meat is for colorectal cancer. There is also evidence of links with pancreatic
cancer and prostate cancer.
-Do you know what types of cancer are related or associated with the
consumption of processed meats?
The IARC working group concluded that the consumption of processed meat
causes colorectal cancer. There was also a partnership with stomach cancer, but
the evidence is not conclusive.
-How many cancer cases each year can be attributed to the consumption of
red meat and processed meat?
According to the most recent estimates of the project on the Global burden of
disease, an independent academic research organization, nearly 34,000 cancer
deaths a year worldwide are attributable to diets rich in processed meat.
Eat red meat still has not been established as a cause of cancer. However, if they
showed that the reported associations are causal, the Global burden of disease
project has estimated that diets high in red meat could be responsible for 50,000
cancer deaths a year worldwide These figures contrast with the close to 1 million
cancer deaths per year worldwide attributable to tobacco use, the 600,000 per year
due to alcohol consumption, and more than 200,000 annual deaths linked to air
pollution.

Tips

You must get used to eating health.

You must get used to doing physical activity.
You must get used to organize good forms time.
You must get used to drinking more water.
You must get used to not smoking.

Medicine Article:The Stress

The stress is a physical feeling or emotional. This feeling comes from any situation
that makes you feel nervous, frustrated or anxious. In some cases stress can be
positive, for example to comply with a date limit, but when stress is long-lasting it
may cause harm to health.
Stress is a normal feeling. There are two main types of stress:
Acute stress. This is stress in the short-term that disappears quickly. You
can feel it when you press the brakes, fights with your partner, or skiing
on a slope. This helps you to control dangerous situations. It also occurs
when it does something new or exciting. All people feel acute stress at
some time or another.
Chronic stress. This is the stress that lasts for a long period of time. You
may have chronic stress if you have money problems, an unhappy
marriage or problems at work. Any kind of stress that continues for
weeks or months is chronic stress. You can get both to the chronic stress
that not is of note that is a problem. If you don't find ways to manage
stress, this could cause health problems.1

Anxiety and stress

Anxiety and stress are very similar terms, since in both cases a reaction
characterized by a high physiological activation occurs. Stress is a wider
process of adaptation to the environment while the anxiety is an emotional
reaction of alert against a threat. Within the process them of change
involving stress, anxiety is the most common emotional reaction. High
anxiety creates stress. At the same time, one of the most common source of
anxiety stress.

1 https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/spanish/ency/article/003211.htm