A November study published in the journal Nature described that trans-vaccenic acid (TVA), a fatty acid found in meat and dairy products, improves immune function.
The common-sense finding comes as global leaders are calling for the reduction of meat consumption to combat “climate change.”
“There are many studies trying to decipher the link between diet and human health, and it’s very difficult to understand the underlying mechanisms because of the wide variety of foods people eat. But if we focus on just the nutrients and metabolites derived from food, we begin to see how they influence physiology and pathology,” Jing Chen, Ph.D. said.
According to the study, TVA helps to eliminate cancer cells and may supplement cancer treatment.
TVA has the “potential for the treatment of tumours,” the authors wrote.
“As a natural food component, TVA has high translational potential as a dietary element in therapeutic approaches to improve clinical outcomes of diverse anti-cancer therapies such as immune checkpoint inhibitors, T cell engagers and CAR-T and T cell receptor T cell therapy,” the researchers added.
Scientists asserted the importance of meat in the human diet in a paper.
The paper was a response to an analysis from The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factor Study, published in The Lancet in 2020, which suggested that a high red meat diet led to 896,000 deaths worldwide and was the fifth leading dietary risk factor.
Dr. Alice Stanton, of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, one of the paper’s authors, said, “The peer-reviewed evidence published reaffirms that [the 2019 Global Burden of Disease Risk Factors Report] which claimed that consumption of even tiny amounts of red meat harms health is fatally scientifically flawed.”
“In fact, removing fresh meat and dairy from diets would harm human health. Women, children, the elderly and low income would be particularly negatively impacted,” she added.
