Nutrient Found in Beef, Dairy Helps Fight Cancer: Journal 'Nature'

Trans-vaccenic acid (TVA) "has translational potential for the treatment of tumours."

A peer-reviewed study published this month in the journal Nature has confirmed a nutrient found in beef and dairy foods improves immune response to cancer.

The authors emphasize that nutrients derived from diet “are inextricably linked” to human physiology, as they provide the body with energy and biosynthetic building blocks, as well as functioning as regulatory molecules.

The study was able to demonstrate that a naturally occurring trans fatty acid and omega-7 fatty acid, called trans-vaccenic acid (TVA)—found in ruminant-derived foods (beef, lamb, milk, butter)—“directly promotes effector CD8+ T cell function and anti-tumour immunity in vivo.”

While TVA is the dominant form of trans-fatty acids found in human milk, humans cannot produce TVA endogenously, meaning it cannot be produced in the body.

So it must be derived from food.

TVA in humans “is mainly from ruminant-derived foods including beef, lamb and dairy products such as milk and butter,” the study reads.

Here’s how it works:

• TVA turns off a receptor called GPR43 on the surface of cells, which is usually activated by certain fatty acids.

• By blocking these fatty acids, TVA activates a series of cell processes involving cAMP, PKA, and CREB, which improves the function of a type of immune cell called CD8+ T cells.

• This shows that TVA from food can change how these immune cells work, differently from how fatty acids produced by gut bacteria do.

“TVA thus has translational potential for the treatment of tumours,” the authors state.

They report that “dietary TVA (also known as (11E)-octadec-11-enoic acid), promotes tumour-infiltrating and cytotoxic functions of effector CD8+ T cells, leading to enhanced anti-tumour immunity in vivo.”

The authors go on to confirm that “consuming red meat may provide TVA for improved anti-tumour immunity,” even though “high intake of red meat has been positively associated with risk of many cancers, including breast, colorectal, colon and rectal cancer” in the past.

Their study supports TVA supplementation “as a more targeted and efficient way” over dietary changes.

However, in November 2022, it was reported that scientists at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) had “scrutinized decades of research on red meat consumption and its links to various health outcomes, formulating a new rating system to communicate health risks in the process.”

Their findings “mostly dispel any concerns about eating red meat,” according to the report.

“We found weak evidence of association between unprocessed red meat consumption and colorectal cancer, breast cancer, type 2 diabetes and ischemic heart disease,” the study reads.

“Moreover, we found no evidence of an association between unprocessed red meat and ischemic stroke or hemorrhagic stroke. We also found that while risk for the six outcomes in our analysis combined was minimized at 0 g unprocessed red meat intake per day, the 95% uncertainty interval that incorporated between-study heterogeneity was very wide: from 0–200 g d−1.”

The study authors confirmed that “[w]hile there is some evidence that eating unprocessed red meat is associated with increased risk of disease incidence and mortality, it is weak and insufficient to make stronger or more conclusive recommendations.”

Moreover, a February 2022 study published in the International Journal of General Medicine showed that meat eaters live longer than non-meat eaters.

“Worldwide, bivariate correlation analyses revealed that meat intake is positively correlated with life expectancies,” the study authors write.

Finally, hundreds of scientists have debunked the mainstream push to adopt a plant-based diet, “arguing that meat is critical to a well-balanced diet — and warning against villainizing carnivores,” according to a report from The New York Post.

The report cited researchers behind nine papers published in April of this year in the journal Animal Frontiers.

The researchers “are among nearly 1,000 signatures on a declaration looking to prove the value of red meat amid a global increase in vegetarianism and veganism.”

The declaration reads: “Livestock-derived foods provide a variety of essential nutrients and other health-promoting compounds, many of which are lacking in diets even among those populations with higher incomes.”

It goes on to say that heavily restricting meat, dairy, and eggs “should not be recommended for general populations.”

The initiative argues that livestock systems are “too precious to society to become the victim of simplification, reduction or zealotry,” adding that these systems “must continue to be embedded in and have broad approval of society.”

Alice Stanton of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland argued that “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 continued.

Adegbola Adesogan, director of the University of Florida’s Global Food Systems Institute, commented, “Animal-source foods are superior to plant-source foods at simultaneously supplying several bioavailable micronutrients and high-quality macronutrients that are critical for growth and cognitive development.”

He added: “Dietary recommendations to eliminate animal-source foods from diets ignore their importance, particularly the great need for these foods in diets of the undernourished in the Global South.”