Experiment: Excessive Animal Protein Can Promote Cancer
The New Year's Eve dinner is the centerpiece of the Spring Festival. Professor Shen Hongyi "shared" several New Year's Eve dinner menus: Lamb Hot Pot, Braised Soft-shelled Turtle, Spicy Little Duck, Wild Boar Stir-fry, Mongolian Roasted Lamb Leg... Although abundant, Shen Hongyi clearly stated that the animal protein in each of these menus far exceeds the body's needs, and nutritional excess can also lead to cancer.
For a long time, a common perception has been formed: protein is a nutrient essential for the human body, and eating more protein-rich foods is beneficial. However, recent medical research has pointed out that excessive protein intake is actually not good for the human body. A 27-year animal experiment in the United States showed that when all experimental rats were exposed to the same dose of aflatoxin, and two groups of rats were fed diets containing 5% and 20% protein respectively, after a period of time, almost all the rats eating the 20% protein diet developed liver cancer, while none of the rats eating the 5% protein diet did.
Shen Hongyi pointed out that the experimental results prove that the amount of protein intake is key in the process of cancer development. If the protein ratio is low, even if one accidentally eats food containing aflatoxin, its effects can be suppressed. However, if one overeats and excessively consumes animal protein for a long time, the cancer-promoting effect of protein may be relatively strong.
Case Study: Yu Juan's Love for Meat
Yu Juan, a teacher at Fudan University who battled cancer, once wrote in her "Life Diary": "I was someone who never refused to try new things at the dinner table. I believed in eating and drinking heartily—large bowls of wine and big mouthfuls of meat." After falling ill, she began to ponder why she had developed cancer and reflected on her past eating habits. As a result, she summarized it in twelve words: eating indiscriminately, binge eating, and being a die-hard carnivore.
Yu Juan wrote: "Due to many objective reasons, such as my father being a chef, I ate many things I shouldn't have have. Incomplete statistics include peacocks, seagulls, whales, pufferfish, sika deer, antelope, bears, elk, reindeer, muntjacs, golden pheasants, wild boars, five-step snakes, and so on, too numerous to mention." "Even after I started working, I still held my waist in pain (it was actually late-stage bone metastasis from cancer) to join the department's trip to Yangcheng Lake and ate seven crabs in one day." "Before I got sick, if there was no meat on the table, I would lose all interest in the meal..."
Shen Hongyi pointed out that Yu Juan's "Life Diary" sheds light on the connection between protein and cancer, and her "die-hard carnivore" habit also laid the groundwork for her later breast cancer.
Suggestion: One Meat Dish to Two Vegetable Dishes
Shen Hongyi explained that keeping the human body's animal protein intake ratio below 10% can effectively prevent cancer and other chronic diseases. For an average adult, a 10% protein intake level is equivalent to consuming 50-60 grams of protein daily, which is the protein from a maximum of 4-5 eggs, or 7 liang of duck, 6 liang of chicken, 6 liang of grass carp, or 5 liang of grass shrimp. "Although the national nutritional standard was raised to 75 grams for men and 65 grams for women in 2000, I personally advocate for sticking to a daily protein intake of around 35-40 grams."
At the lecture, residents also shared their New Year's Eve dinner menus. Professor Shen Hongyi pointed out that these menus mostly contained a large amount of meat dishes and animal protein. "If you eat it all, you will intake 80% protein. This way, you spend money and create hidden health risks." Shen Hongyi stated that during holidays, it's fine to eat chicken, duck, fish, and meat, but it needs to be reasonably paired—one meat dish to two vegetable dishes, so that the protein intake ratio won't be too high. Shen Hongyi also shared her own eating habits at the event—eat vegetables first, and only eat meat after the vegetables are finished. Due to her daily focus on balancing meat and vegetables, her health check-up indicators remain normal even in her fifties, despite a family history of cardiovascular disease.