KEY POINTS:
Want the best shot at avoiding cancer? Take a deep breath and be prepared to work for it by changing your lifestyle.
A landmark report from the World Cancer Research Fund says about a third of cancers can be prevented by choosing a healthy diet, being physically active and maintaining a healthy weight. As many again could be prevented by abolishing smoking.
"If all factors are taken into account, cancer is mostly a preventable disease," says the 537-page report, based on thousands of studies and written over the past five years by a panel of experts, including Otago University's Professor Jim Mann.
"The most important thing is the astronomically important role of obesity," said Professor Mann.
"This applies to a whole range of cancers, including two of the most common cancers, post-menopausal breast cancer and cancer of the colon.
"The other thing is the potentially important role of physical activity in cancer prevention, particularly cancer of the colon - not just with regard to obesity prevention. It seems also to be independently related."
More than 8000 people died from cancer in 2003, making it New Zealand's leading cause of death.
The report recommends maintaining a healthy weight and waist circumference (under 80cm for women and 94cm for men), eating plenty of fruit and non-starchy vegetables, and taking at least 30 minutes' of moderate physical activity a day - whether formal exercise or just vigorous housework - and preferably much more.
These suggestions go further than current official advice, which Professor Mann expected would now have to be revised - but the report's most controversial aspects are its challenge to meat lovers and heavier drinkers.
It urges limiting red meat (beef, lamb, pork and goat) and avoiding processed meats like ham, salami and bacon which have been smoked, cured or salted or which contain chemical preservatives. "People who eat flesh foods are advised to prefer poultry, and all types of fish, to red meat."
The report recommends restricting red meat intake to less than 500g a week cooked weight (700-750g raw), which equates to 71.4g a day. A typical steak can weigh 150-250g raw.
The Beef and Lamb Marketing Bureau says the recommendation is higher than the amount New Zealanders eat now. Bureau nutrition manager Fiona Carruthers says women eat 39g of beef and lamb a day and men 74g.
But other data she supplied suggest that if pork is included, the figures rise to 57g a day of cooked red meat for women and 110g for men, putting men well over the new recommendation.
The Ministry of Health said the report's recommendations were in line with its own.
But the Obesity Action Coalition and the Fight the Obesity Epidemic group (FOE) said the report showed the Government needed to take new actions to combat the problem of obesity - the rate of which has more than doubled among adults since 1977 and stood at 21 per cent in 2003.
FOE spokeswoman Dr Robyn Toomath called for immediate protection of New Zealanders from their "toxic" food environment through stronger restrictions on junk-food ads, tax changes to encourage healthy eating and introduction of a traffic-lights food-labelling system.
How to avoid cancer
The World Cancer Research Fund recommends
* Limit your red meat consumption to less than 500g a week (cooked weight). That's about 70g a day - less than a small steak.
* Avoid sausages and other processed meats.
* Limit alcohol to two drinks a day for men and one for women. An example of one standard drink is a 330ml stubbie of beer with 4 per cent alcohol.
* Eat energy-dense fast-foods like hot chips, burgers and fried chicken "sparingly, if at all".
* Avoid sugary drinks.
* Eat wholegrains and/or pulses (eg lentils) with every meal.
* Eat at least five serves a day of fruits and non-starchy vegetables.
* Exercise: start with 30 minutes a day of moderate activity, increasing to 60 minutes' moderate activity or 30 minutes' vigorous activity.
* Don't smoke.
Mad Butcher has beef with health reports
Peter Leitch, aka "The Mad Butcher", said he was confused by the research.
Mr Leitch, who earlier this year underwent emergency heart surgery to clear a blood clot, said he had eaten meat all his life and was not about to change.
"You get these reports coming out all the time telling you not to do this or not to do that, and if any of us bloody listened we'd all be stuck indoors doing nothing," he said.
While he is waiting to see the report to decide on its findings for himself, he did not think it would have an adverse effect on the meat industry.
"Mate, can you imagine going to a tangi and there was no meat in the hangi ?"
New Zealanders last year ate on average 33.83kg of beef each - nearly 8 kg more than the recommended yearly intake from a World Cancer Research Fund report - according to figures from the New Zealand Beef and Lamb Marketing Bureau.
The findings showed pork chops, bacon and ham were also popular, with consumption of pig meat up to 19.56kg from 18.2kg the previous year.
Total red meat consumption for the year ended September 2006 was 47.2kg, up 9.8 per cent, and the largest consumption per head since September 1998.
Figures from the Meat Industry Association of New Zealand showed local beef consumption, which in 2004 was more than 100,000 tonnes, was increasing.
