The 1st Middle East Vegetarian (MEVEG) Congress, Part 22 of a Multi-part Series

He did his BSc (Bachelor of Science), MSc (Masters of Science), and PhD – all in nutritional sciences at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran. As a human nutrition student, Arash was initially very interested in biomedical sciences, but gradually he shifted his studies into nutrition, epidemiology, community nutrition, and food and nutrition policy and planning.

“I’m going to talk about the relationship between meat and cancer, […] because this is one of the main issues in the world of nutrition. Four facts: cancer is the second cause of death, mortality in the world, in most societies. But more than this, which you cannot find in any textbook, is the second fact: this is the first, let’s say, cause of fear and anxiety. For healthy people, it may come up from somewhere, one day, nobody knows. And then the treatment is much tougher than coronary vascular disease as the first cause of mortality and death, and even it is a fear and anxiety for the family of the patient, even for the health staff.

The third fact is, especially because of these two and of course this is economy; this is business – billions of dollars each year is spent for research and management of cancer.

The fourth one is, nutrition and lifestyle plays as a major role. There is an estimation from the American scientists, they have shown that 30 to 40% of causes of cancer can be related to nutrition. And if we add other aspects of lifestyle like stress, like alcohol drinking, like cigarette smoking, then it would be a very big share of cause.”

“And it’s very interesting that scientists have shown even in a community with under nutrition, then there is a risk of over nutrition. So, they are not different diseases, there are same roots for different disease. Now we know that people in less developed countries, they are experiencing more obesity, it means that poverty and obesity are linked together; it’s not the affluence that causes obesity.”