Eating more meat does not uniformly raise the risk of cancer death, according to a large-scale domestic study. For Koreans, what kind of meat one mainly eats and whether one is male or female were more closely linked to cancer death risk than how much meat was consumed.
Red Meat for Men, Organ Meat for Women: Diverging Results by Sex
On Tuesday, a joint research team led by Professor Park Min-sun of the Department of Family Medicine at Seoul National University Hospital and Professor Yoo In-sun of the Department of Family Medicine at Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital released the results of an analysis examining the link between meat consumption by type and cancer-specific mortality. The study covered 147,562 adults aged 40 and older who participated in the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study (KoGES).
The findings showed that total meat consumption itself had no clear association with overall cancer mortality in either men or women. But when meat was broken down by type, an entirely different picture emerged depending on sex.
Among men, the group that ate the most red meat had a 52 percent lower risk of dying from stomach cancer than the group that ate the least. In terms of hazard ratio, this corresponds to a level of 0.48. This trend was especially pronounced among relatively lean men with a BMI under 25 or men with a history of smoking.
By contrast, processed meat showed a different result in men. Men who ate processed meats such as ham, sausage, and bacon had a 2.45-fold higher risk of dying from rectal cancer than those who did not. This means that even the same "meat" can have completely different health effects depending on its type.
In women, organ meat was the variable. The group that ate relatively large amounts of organ meat — such as liver, small intestine, large intestine, beef intestine, and heart (the third tertile) — had a 2.57-fold higher risk of dying from breast cancer and a 1.83-fold higher risk of dying from pancreatic cancer than the group that ate the least. This association appeared more clearly in women aged 60 and older, those with a BMI under 25, and non-smokers.
Why These Results? "Look at Korean Food Culture and Organ Meat Characteristics"
As for why red meat consumption was linked to a lower risk of stomach cancer death in men, the research team pointed to Korean food culture as one of the main factors. While in Western countries a high proportion of red meat is eaten in salted or smoked form, in Korea pork and beef are often consumed grilled, leading to differences in salt exposure and fat composition.
The team also suggested that groups eating large amounts of red meat tend to have relatively higher socioeconomic status, and may have participated more actively in health checkups or stomach cancer screening. In other words, rather than an effect of red meat itself, dietary habits and health management practices may have worked together.
Regarding the rise in cancer death risk associated with organ meat consumption in women, the composition of organ meat drew attention. "Organ meats such as liver and small intestine may contain more heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium, and lead than ordinary lean meat," said Professor Yoo In-sun of the Department of Family Medicine at Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital. "These substances accumulate in fat tissue and then leach back into the blood during weight changes or aging, which may have affected women's cancer death risk."
However, the research team drew a line, noting that because this study was based on observational research, it cannot be definitively concluded that a specific type of meat directly raises or lowers cancer death risk. They explained that further research reflecting cooking methods, long-term changes in dietary habits, and other lifestyle variables is needed.
The study is also significant in that, while existing research has mostly been conducted in Western countries focusing on overall meat or red meat consumption and cancer incidence risk, this is the first domestic study to examine the relationship between meat consumption by type and cancer mortality in Koreans.
The findings were published in a recent issue of the international nutrition and dietetics journal Frontiers in Nutrition.
