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I was sorry to see the poor advice in the Owen Marcus column “Empty Carbs Sabotage Your Health” (Daily Bee, Aug. 31, page A4). Mr. Marcus advocates a no-grain diet and pushes readers to eat more red meat.

I became a vegetarian at age 12 for ethical reasons. My parents were horrified, believing I would ruin my health. The nutritional data was of no concern to me at the time. Now, at age 72, the scientific data proves more friendly to vegetarians. Not only is it established that vegetables, fruit, nuts and legumes provide all needed protein and nutrition (except perhaps B-12 vitamin). But big news this year was the compiling years of worldwide research that showed eating of red meat is as strongly linked to cancer as was cigarette smoking. Not lung cancer, rather this was tied to colon cancer, not as aggressively as tobacco to lung cancer, but just as certainly, connected. The conclusion:

There is now a clear body of evidence that bowel cancer is more common among those who eat the most red and processed meat. Processed meat consumption has also been strongly linked to a higher risk of stomach cancer. The World Health Organization has classified processed meats – including ham, salami, sausages and hot dogs – as a class 1 carcinogen which means that there is strong evidence that processed meats cause cancer. Red meat, such as beef, lamb and pork has been classified as a ‘probable’ cause of cancer. These classifications do not indicate the risk of getting cancer, rather how certain we are that these things are likely to cause cancer.

This reputable research from Harvard University and the World Health Organization should not be lightly contradicted by non-M.D. certified individuals My own experience of being in better health at this age than my meat eating father who had colon cancer is just a single case proving little. But the large published medical research is data on many thousands of people. So I will point you toward a few sources you may wish to scan through on the red meat-colon cancer connection:

• www.cancercouncil.com.au/21639/cancer-information/cancer-risk-and-prevention/healthy-weight-diet-and-exercise/meat-and-cancer/#B6jjVgiQxZvv5xXD.99

• www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/pr/2015/pdfs/pr240_E.pdf

• https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2015/11/03/report-says-eating-processed-meat-is-carcinogenic-understanding-the-findings/

STEVE WILLEY

Sandpoint