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For Immediate
Release:
May 17, 2000

For more information:
202/332-9110

  Dioxin Report Means ‘Eat Less Meat, Cheese’

Michael F. Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, had the following comment about the report in the Washington Post about the Environmental Protection Agency’s Draft Report on dioxins.
     “The EPA’s draft report on cancer-causing dioxins, as reported in today’s Washington Post, provides Americans with one more powerful reason to eat less meat, cheese, and other fatty meat and dairy products and fish from contaminated rivers and lakes. We should instead base our diet much more on whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. When we do eat animal products, we should choose the leanest meats, fat-free milk, and reduced-fat cheeses. At restaurants we should avoid foods like cheeseburgers and pepperoni pizza and instead choose salads, pizzas topped with vegetables and little or no cheese, grilled chicken sandwiches, and side orders of vegetables.

     “Importantly, the diet that minimizes dioxin-related harm would also help prevent other diet-related cancers, as well as cardiovascular disease, the nation’s number-one killer.”