And the difference in risk is high: people who eat red and processed meat have a 17 per cent higher chance of developing bowel cancer, but that's a comparison between groups of people who get bowel cancer, which is a very rare event.
How rare? According to the Cancer Research UK, "the WCRF's analysis suggests that, among 1000 people who eat the most processed meat, you'd expect 66 to develop bowel cancer at some point in their lives – 10 more than the group who eat the least processed meat." So assuming that Australian rates are similar, cutting your meat intake takes your lifetime risk of bowel cancer from 6.6 per cent to 5.6 per cent. Not high, in other words.
In other words: yes, you could probably stand to cut down on the amount of red meat you consume, but it's unlikely to make a major difference to your actual risk of getting cancer. Still, data is data and it's better to know this stuff than not.
