The worldwide Agency for Research on Cancer, the cancer agency of the World Health Organization, said: “Processed meat was classified as carcinogenic to humans, based on sufficient evidence in humans that the consumption of processed meat causes colorectal cancer”.
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The UN-led study also confirmed a link between red meat and pancreatic and prostate cancer too.
The study places processed meats – like brats, sausage and ham – in the carcinogen category one, right alongside smoking.
As with all cancers, it’s a “relative” risk.
WHO’s cancer agency analyzed decades of research on the subject and issued its most definitive statement yet, putting processed meats in the same danger category as smoking or asbestos.
Most processed meats contain pork or beef, but processed meats may also contain other red meats, poultry, offal, or meat by-products such as blood.
To be sure, the American public’s taste for processed meats has had its ups and downs in recent years, but Mittenthal said statistics show that has more to do with the cost of meat.
INSKEEP: And so what is the conclusion that has the meat industry unhappy?
Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades president Simon Wong Ka-wo said the report would affect the industry as processed meat is “big business”.
“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”, said Dr. Kurt Straif from WHO’s global Agency for Research on Cancer in France said in a statement.
Experts have long warned of the dangers of certain chemicals used to cure meat, such as nitrites and nitrates, which the body converts into cancer-causing compounds.
But he also said that red meat “has nutritional value” and that governments would be able to use the IARC’s findings to balance what he called the “risks and benefits” of eating red and processed meat.
NOGUCHI: And they go sort of further saying that not only is meat safe, but it’s an important part of a balanced diet.
The World Health Organization researchers defined processed meat as anything transformed to improve its flavour or preserve it, including sausages, beef jerky and anything smoked.
The research into a possible link between eating red meat and cancer – colorectal cancer is a longstanding area of concern – has been the subject of scientific debate for decades.
This compares with about 1 million cancer deaths per year globally due to tobacco smoking and 600,000 a year due to alcohol consumption, it said.
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“It might be a good idea not to be an excessive consumer of meat”, said Jonathan Schoenfeld, the co-author of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition article and an assistant professor in radiation oncology at Harvard Medical School. Its panel looked at more than 800 other studies to say, OK, where is a preponderance of evidence? “But it should not be used for scaremongering”.
