From Caribbean360

The researchers said that eating a lot of protein, especially animal protein, increased the risk of cancer almost as much as smoking 20 cigarettes a day.

LONDON, England, Thursday March 13, 2014 – A new study indicates that middle-aged people who eat protein-rich food are four times more likely to die of cancer than those who maintain a lower protein diet.

Eating a lot of protein increased the risk of cancer almost as much as smoking 20 cigarettes a day, according to the researchers.

Published in the journal Cell: Metabolism, the findings of the study were reached after tracking thousands of people over two decades.

“We provide convincing evidence that a high-protein diet, particularly if the proteins are derived from animals, is nearly as bad as smoking for your health,” one of the academics behind the work, Dr Valter Longo of the University of Southern California, told The Daily Telegraph.

A high-protein diet was defined as one in which 20 percent of the calories came from protein. They recommended eating 0.8g of protein per kilogram of body weight a day during middle age.

The scientists nevertheless said that protein had benefits during later life.

“We also propose that at older ages, it may be important to avoid a low-protein diet to allow the maintenance of healthy weight and protection from frailty,” said Dr Eileen Crimmins, a co-author of the study.

Dr Gunter Kuhnle, a food nutrition scientist at the University of Reading, criticised the study for making a link to smoking.

“While this study raises some interesting perspectives on links between protein intake and mortality… It is wrong, and potentially even dangerous, to compare the effects of smoking with the effect of meat and cheese,” he was quoted as saying in The Independent.

“The smoker thinks: ‘Why bother quitting smoking if my cheese and ham sandwich is just as bad for me?’”

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