I was having a Sunday dinner at a friend’s home. After we finished eating, his daughter showed me a thread one of her co-workers had sent her regarding meat. I must preface this discussion by stating that the article was written by a vegetarian/vegan praying on consumer fears of unsafe food. The headline was “butcher shocks world by telling truth about meat.” This article professed that a butcher of 30 years had seen cancer laden meat on a regular basis. In this instance pork. It went on to say he had been cutting it out and continued to sell the meat to unsuspecting consumers. Does this happen? How often, or is this fake news? Does it occur in both retail cuts and processed meats like hot dogs?

We all hope and believe the USDA does its job right. Although it’s hardly a given. The federal agency does not allow animals with cancer to be sold for consumption. Recently the federal government sentenced the foreman of a California slaughterhouse to two years in for attempting to sell meat from cows with cancer. Cancer is scary and the thought of eating it is even scarier. If the cancerous meat had been sold, would anyone have gotten sick?

To say that eating cancer would give you cancer is to suggest that cancer is actually contagious. While this is true in very rare cases outside of humans*, it broadly suggests that cancer itself is a physical thing that can be “caught.” It’s not. Cancer is much more of a process than a thing. When the right combination of mutations builds up in a cell’s DNA, that cell goes rogue, dividing uncontrollably until it forms the mass of cancer cells. This is a tumor, a clump of cells nonetheless. By cooking said mass and running it through the acid storm that is human digestion the mass would be broken down into their essential parts. What is left is mostly strings of amino acids and globular fats, with some branched sugars sprinkled throughout. Still, the USDA cancer rules exist for a reason. We assume that a tumor cell from a cancerous animal can no longer spread cancer once the animal is dead. And, for the most part, lab testing seems to indicate that we’re right. Facts are more helpful than fear.

My question today is a multiple choice please pick the ones that most closely aligns with your feelings today and explain why.

a) I believe the food that comes through our systems is safe

b) I often wonder about the food I buy

c) I consider myself an educated consumer

d) This freaked me out and I’m never going to eat meat again.

Live well…

* Harper’s Magazine April 2008 - Contagious Cancer, The Evolution of a Killer by David Quammen

Food for thought

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