RANKING MEAT CONSUMPTION ON THE SPECTRUM OF HEALTHY FOODS, HABITS

Never: Smoking Everybody needs to eat, but nobody needs to smoke. The WHO has identified tobacco use as the single greatest avoidable risk factor for cancer mortality worldwide. In a given year, tobacco use accounts for nearly a quarter of all cancer deaths and kills six million people worldwide. Caution: Drinking Many studies — but not all — have linked moderate alcohol consumption to health benefits, including a lower risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Canadian guidelines define “moderate” as no more than two drinks a day and 10 per week for women, or three a day and 15 per week for men. But overdrinking carries profound health risks, and the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse calculates that 4,600 lives would be saved every year if Canadians stuck to the guidelines. Caution: Meat The risk is small, but other sources of protein are associated with health benefits: one 2004 meta-analysis found that every 20-gram increase in fish intake was linked to a 7-per-cent decrease in mortality from coronary heart disease. Often: Exercise The WHO names physical inactivity as the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality, naming it as the cause of between one-fourth and one-fifth of all cases of breast and colon cancers, diabetes and heart disease. Exercise — one subset of physical activity, which also includes movement on the job or in transit — has been linked to so many positive physical and mental health outcomes that some doctors consider it medicine. Adults should get 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous aerobic activity a week, Canadian guidelines say, but more sweat provides greater benefits. Often: Fruits and vegetables At this point, everybody knows they should eat their fruits and veggies, but the scientific evidence keeps rolling in anyway — and some of it is staggering. In one British study that followed over 65,000 people, those who ate seven or more portions of fruit and vegetables daily were 42 per cent less likely to die of any cause than those who ate none, and reduced their cancer risk by 25 per cent.