Macro partitioning
Animal protein intake may have a mild protective association with cancer mortality, but plant protein intake is not associated with cancer mortality risk.
While animal protein may have a mild protective association with cancer mortality, plant protein does not show this specific benefit in this study. You do not need to avoid animal protein for cancer prevention, and plant protein is not uniquely protective.
There was an (inverse) association between cancer mortality and animal protein (HR = 0.95; 95% CI: 0.91–1.00; P = 0.04) but no relationship with plant protein (HR = 1.08; 95% CI: 0.93–1.24; P = 0.30).
Why this rating
Large sample size and sophisticated statistical methods, but observational nature limits causal inference.
Source
Animal and plant protein usual intakes are not adversely associated with all-cause, cardiovascular disease–, or cancer-related mortality risk: an NHANES III analysis
Yanni Papanikolaou et al. · Applied Physiology Nutrition and Metabolism · 2025
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