The IARC posted a Q&A on its site, but it didn’t cover all of the questions we’ve been hearing from you on social media. “I don’t think there’s any new news here, except that when you lump it in a category with tobacco for instance, people want to equate those two risks”. “I’m more concerned about the quality of the meat that we’re getting from factory farms and those additional chemicals”.
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Processed meat, on the other hand, “refers to meat that has been transformed through salting, curing, fermentation, smoking, or other processes to enhance flavor or improve preservation”.
What about chicken or turkey sausage?
Red meat fared slightly better under the scrutiny, and was classified as a possible carcinogen that entails the same level of cancer risk as glyphosate, the active ingredient in many pesticides.
How did the IARC reach these conclusions?
Alexander’s daughter, Athena, said she loves processed meats because they taste good, but her mom only lets her have them once in a while. High-temperature cooking – or braaiing – is also implicated. Other studies show those compounds appearing in parts of the digestive tract like the colon. And there are other proposed mechanisms, too. “Also, most processed meat are semi-cooked, which means not all the micro-organisms are destroyed”.
The consumption of meat varies greatly between countries, with from a few percent up to 100% of people eating red meat, depending on the country, and somewhat lower proportions eating processed meat.
As a minimum, consumers should be made aware of the risks they face by eating processed red meat, and should ideally adopt a vegan diet, which is associated with a reduced risk of bowel cancer.
The cancer research agency categorizes cancer risks for governments to use in crafting regulations and recommendations.
So, can we still eat fancy bacon?
The IARC stopped short of saying what constitutes a safe amount to eat.
Since publishing the report “No Safe Limit” in 2013, which examined this evidence, Animal Aid has called for processed red meat products to carry health warnings and for children and hospital patients to be protected from their carcinogenic properties.
Meanwhile, the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) applauded the findings. Instead, it advises that Americans minimize processed meats like bacon and sausage in their diets, and choose fish, poultry and beans as an alternative to red meat.
Meat producers are angry, vegetarians are feeling vindicated and cancer experts are welcoming the most comprehensive pronouncement yet on the relation between our modern meat-eating lifestyles and cancer.
“Chance, bias and confounding could not be ruled out with the same degree of confidence for the data on red meat consumption, since no clear association was seen in several of the high-quality studies… there is limited evidence in human beings for the carcinogenicity of the consumption of red meat”, the group added. [But] nearly too much of anything could be bad for you.
“For an individual, the risk of developing colorectal cancer due to their consumption of processed meat remains small, but this risk increases with the amount of meat consumed”, Dr. Kurt Straif of the IARC said in an agency news release. “But according to the CDC [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], smoking cigarettes multiplies a person’s risk for cancer by as much as 20 times”, the agency said in its statement.
Q: Is this really all that new? .
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“If you got everything that the World Health Organization said was carcinogenic and took it out of your daily requirements, well you are kind of heading back to a cave”, he said.
