The findings are a mouthful: If you want to reduce your cancer risk, stay as lean as possible within your healthy weight range; eat no more than 18 ounces of beef, pork and lamb a week; abstain from processed meats such as bacon, ham, cured sausage and lunchmeat; cut salt; drink no more than two alcoholic beverages daily if you're a man (or one if you're a woman); stay away from sugary, fatty processed foods; and eat mostly fruits, vegetables and grains.

"If these recommendations were adopted around the world, scientists estimate it could prevent about one-third of global cancer cases," says W. Phillip T. James, one of 21 international experts who analyzed more than 7,000 large-scale scientific studies for the report.

You can imagine the controversy over this one. The American Meat Institute accused the World Cancer Research Fund of an "anti-meat bias." And I'm skeptical about diet and exercise preventing one-third of cancer cases, especially in light of factors such as genetics, tobacco use and environment.

Called "Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective," the report took five years to finish. According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, nine teams of scientists, hundreds of peer reviewers and those 21 experts worked on the report. Check it out at www.dietandcancerreport.org - and remember your common sense.

For example, don't beat yourself up if you're not at the lowest point of the body mass index's healthy range. (The body mass index is a measure of body fat.) So what if you can't get close to an 18.5, as the report recommends?

Just exercise daily for at least 30 minutes, and preferably more. And don't worry that every extra pound raises the risk of post-menopausal breast cancer; adenocarcinoma of the esophagus and endometrium; and cancers of the colon, kidney and pancreas.

Likewise, instead of measuring all the ounces of red meat you eat, just follow this easy guideline from the "The New American Plate Cookbook: Recipes for a Healthy Weight and a Healthy Life" (University of California Press, $24.95): Make sure your plate has two-thirds fruit, vegetables, legumes and whole grains and one-third meat. Be sure to eat many different types of plant foods and animal foods.

This 2005 cookbook from the American Institute for Cancer Research does a better job of encouraging healthy habits than the report released last week. And its advice is common sense.

If a single week's meals are chicken, fish, shrimp, black beans and lamb with lots of different fruits and veggies, you're getting a wide range of nutrients. Better yet, you're not leaving enough room for the fatty and sugary processed foods the report advises you to avoid.

It all makes sense to me, except for the recommendation to avoid all processed meats. The report says meats preserved with nitrites, salt or smoke are linked to colon and stomach cancer.

I asked Karen Collins, the institute's nutrition adviser, about cancer rates before refrigeration made fresh meat common. Could traditional methods of preserving meat really be that bad?

Stomach cancer rates used to be higher, Collins says. And "the reason people didn't get colon cancer was because they didn't live long enough."

Her response is precisely why I'll still enjoy ham at Christmas and the occasional hot link.