One local doctor concurs with the warnings the World Health Organization is sending out about processed meats. In particular, processed red meats – cured meats like bacon and smoked sausages – now fall into the IARC’s “Group 1”, high as tobacco smoking and asbestos exposure.
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If those meats are processed, do those same risks come along with them? A greater awareness about antibiotics and other additives, concern about animal welfare and willingness to explore food cultures where meat isn’t the center of the meal all have contributed to the decline in meat consumption, she said.
The report was published this week by the global Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization.
“Processed meats are high in saturated fat”.
Help protect the health of our nation’s schoolchildren by keeping their cafeterias carcinogen-free. “However, what we see is that those people who eat sausage every day have an increased risk of bowel cancer”.
The Herald’s headline – “Processed meats rank alongside smoking as major cause of cancer”, is bang on. I love a juicy hamburger and hot dogs, particularly with cheese and chili, get a high five signal from my taste buds a couple of times a month. The link between cancer and red meat is less persuasive. The number of people eating a meat-based diet is strangely on the rise in India, unlike the west where more and more people are turning vegetarian and vegan.
We discuss the findings with Sara Haas, a dietician who voices WBBM’s “Eating Right”, and Dustin Boler, an assistant professor in the department of animal sciences at the University of Illinois and member of the American Meat Science Association. Just to be clear, it isn’t that eating two pieces of bacon will increase your colorectal cancer risk by 18 percent.
Red meat has always been associated with increased cancer risk for reasons including its saturated fat content. Both red and processed meats have been associated with heart disease as well, resulting in the familiar recommendations to frequently choose fish or poultry.
The panel’s conclusions were based primarily on epidemiological studies linking what people ate with cancers they developed later.
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Overall, the lifetime risk of developing colorectal cancer is about 1 in 20, or about 5 percent, according to the cancer society. Doesn’t it all depend on how your total diet works out, whether you eat your veggies, whether your weight is correct, how much alcohol you drink, and whether it is red wine, and your genetics?
