Beautiful, white, light, safe. Chicken has always enjoyed that healthy aura that distinguished it from red meats, the “bad” ones, the ones to keep in check. Anyone who has ever tried any diet knows it: when it comes to animal proteins, chicken has always been the patron saint of slimming and healthy regimens. But what happens when our usual allies turn out to be potential traitors? A recent Italian study casts an ominous shadow on this dietary certainty, suggesting that there is a correlation between chicken and cancer that we can no longer ignore.
Four servings per week (just over 300 grams) could double the risk of dying from gastrointestinal cancer. A piece of news that shakes our eating habits and raises uncomfortable questions about our daily choices.
Alarming data from southern Italy
The study conducted byNational Institute of Gastroenterology Italian does not leave much room for interpretation. The researchers followed nearly 5.000 middle-aged participants coming from Castellana Grotte and Putignano in Puglia for almost twenty years. A significant time span that gives weight to the conclusions.
The results? Eating over 300 grams of chicken per week (the equivalent of four servings) doubles the risk of dying from one of eleven different types of gastrointestinal cancer, including those affecting the stomach, intestines and pancreas. Not only that, excessive consumption of white meat has been linked to a 27% increase in the likelihood of death overall.
Men, interestingly, seem more vulnerable to the negative effects of this consumption. Researchers speculate that it may be linked to portion size or hormones. Details that, frankly, seem almost irrelevant to me when we are talking about a doubling of the risk of death from cancer.
A surprise for nutritionists
The fact that white meat has come under fire represents a sort of Copernican revolution in the world of nutrition. For decades, nutritionists have recommended replacing red meat with chicken, considered leaner and healthier.
Yet the data speak clearly: gastrointestinal tumors have represented 10,5% of deaths among study participants. And consumption of white meat was significantly higher among those who died of these types of cancer. A sobering correlation.
I study, published last month in the scientific journal Nutrients, does not clarify the precise cause of the increased mortality risk. Among the hypotheses, the cooking processes and the exposure of farm animals to hormones and drugs.
Chicken and Cancer, the Broader Context
Chicken was the most consumed meat in the world in 2023, and studies indicate that per capita consumption in Italy is increasing. At the same time, cancer rates are also rising, even among the youngest. A complex phenomenon that arises from many factors.
Nutrition is generally considered one of these factors. According to the BBC, the Cancer Research UK has previously suggested that 21% of bowel cancers and 3% of all cancers in Britain are caused by eating red or processed meat.
Conversely, a growing body of evidence links vegetarian and plant-based diets to a reduced risk of developing cancer, including gastrointestinal cancers such as colon cancer.
What can I say? Maybe it’s time to reconsider that chicken breast that seemed so harmless on our plate. If even white meat is no longer so “white,” our food certainties falter.
What is left for us to eat without feeling guilty? Maybe the answer is greener than we think.
