With 9,752 people in South Korea dying of colorectal cancer last year, the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the World Cancer Research Fund are urging people to eat less red meat and more fiber-rich foods, citing accumulated evidence that red and processed meat consumption is linked to higher colorectal cancer risk.
Cancer killed 90,203 people in the country last year, according to Statistics Korea's 2025 cause-of-death statistics. Colorectal cancer ranked third with 9,752 deaths, after lung cancer at 19,805 and liver cancer at 10,383. By incidence, colorectal cancer also ranked third, behind thyroid and lung cancer, according to the 2023 national cancer registry statistics released on Jan. 20, 2026, by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Central Cancer Registry. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a World Health Organization body, classified processed meat as a Group 1 carcinogen and red meat as a Group 2A probable carcinogen on Oct. 26, 2015, citing the link to colorectal cancer.
An IARC working group said colorectal cancer risk rises 18% for every 50 grams of processed meat eaten daily and 17% for every 100 grams of red meat. Some note that these are relative risks. Nam Jeong-seok, a professor at Gachon University's Cancer and Diabetes Institute, said at a forum held by the Korean Society of Food Hygiene and Safety that if the baseline chance of developing colorectal cancer is assumed to be 1%, eating 50 grams of processed meat daily raises it to 1.18%. An IARC official said the link between red meat and cancer rests in part on limited evidence.
The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) recommends limiting red meat to 350 to 500 grams a week, measured as cooked weight. A dietary summary of the fifth edition of the European Code Against Cancer, published on the IARC website in October 2025, noted that red meat consumption in the European Union is double that recommended level. The summary urged people to build their diets around whole grains, vegetables, legumes and fruit, to limit red meat and to avoid processed meat. It explained that dietary fiber can lower colorectal cancer risk by increasing beneficial gut bacteria, speeding digestion and adding bulk to stool, while heme iron and fat, both abundant in red and processed meat, may contribute to cancer development. Legumes were presented as an alternative to red meat. In 16 of the EU's 27 member states, average whole-grain intake falls short of 50 grams a day. The summary also stated that no single food is an anti-cancer superfood.
Korean diets fall short of those recommendations. In the dietary quality index from the ninth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, covering 2022 to 2024 and released by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency in August, scores for multigrain and fruit intake were the lowest of all categories, and people in their 20s and 30s scored lowest overall. In the 2023 survey, 22.1% of respondents ate at least 500 grams of vegetables and fruit a day, with shortfalls greater among those in their 20s to 40s. A 2015 Ministry of Health and Welfare nutrition survey put average red and processed meat intake at 61 grams a day.
Evidence for replacing red meat with plant protein has come from cardiovascular research. In a study of 43,272 U.S. men followed from 1986 to 2016 by researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and published in The BMJ in 2020, eating one daily serving of nuts, legumes or soy was associated with a 14% lower risk of coronary heart disease than eating total red meat. Substituting fish for red meat showed no such association. The researchers said the substitution could reduce risk, and because the study was observational it did not establish causation.
Cooking method matters as well. Cooking meat at high temperatures can generate carcinogens such as heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, according to a March 28 report by Health Chosun citing the U.S. health outlet EatingWell. The report cited research showing that marinating meat for about 30 minutes in rosemary, garlic, olive oil and lemon juice cut heterocyclic amine formation by up to 90%. Using an oven or air fryer to shorten exposure to high heat was also suggested. Experts noted that nitrites are used to preserve processed meat and that compounds formed in the gut can damage intestinal cells.
Diet alone cannot fully prevent colorectal cancer. The national colorectal cancer screening program offers an annual fecal occult blood test to people aged 50 and over, followed by a colonoscopy if results are abnormal. The National Health Insurance Service covers the cost, with patients paying only for sedation during the colonoscopy. Experts suggest managing how much meat people eat and increasing the share of plant-based foods, rather than cutting out meat entirely.
