Prostate Cancer Awareness Campaign Under Fire

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Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia's 'Host a BBQ for Prostate Cancer' awareness campaign could well be doing more harm than good, according to research that implicates meat consumption as a risk factor in prostate cancer.

Melbourne-based organisation, Vegetarian Network Victoria, has condemned the campaign as counterproductive. "Promoting barbecues to raise awareness of prostate cancer is like promoting the smoking of cigarettes to raise awareness of lung cancer", said VNV president Mark Doneddu.

"There is a huge amount of evidence to support a correlation between meat and dairy consumption and prostate cancer. The Physician's Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study from Harvard University studied a total of 66,000 men between them, and the correlation was unmistakable," said Mr Doneddu.

"The authors of the second study [Follow-Up] found that men consuming red meat five times a week had 2.5 times the risk compared to those not consuming it. And there are many more studies - you just have to look in the Journal of Cancer Research."

However men already afflicted with prostate cancer can slow down or reverse their condition through diet, according to several publications in the Journal of Urology , one of which describes diet therapy as a "promising intervention" to prevent prostate cancer progression.

"The studies consistently show that replacing animal foods with plant foods will lower most bio-markers for prostate cancer - such as serum cholesterol, excessive hormone activity and PSA levels - and even visibly slow down cancer growth," said Mr Doneddu. "3,300 Australians die of the disease every year. The best way to lower that number is to raise awareness of the lifestyle factors that contribute to the cancer."

Vegetarian Network Victoria www.vnv.org.au

VNV President Mark Doneddu - 0448 712 063

Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia - www.prostate.org.au