Aided by a strong industry marketing push, bacon shed its reputation as a country meat and was reborn countrywide as a beloved breakfast staple for every social strata.
Advertisement
Nov 2, 2015- Processed meats – such as bacon, sausages and ham – do cause cancer, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). “Researchers now believe the evidence from these many studies is conclusive enough to classify processed meat as a carcinogen”. Air quality and whether a person smokes has more of a bearing on them getting cancer than eating processed or red meat, she added.
It has now placed processed meat in the same category as plutonium, but also alcohol as they definitely do cause cancer.
The Working Group classified consumption of red meat as probably carcinogenic to humans (Group 2A), “based on limited evidence that the consumption of red meat causes cancer in humans and strong mechanistic evidence supporting a carcinogenic effect”.
Many studies show the links, both in populations of people and in tests that show how eating these foods can cause cancer, IARC said in its report, published in “The Lancet” medical journal.
The World Health Organization said its findings were a scientific evaluation of the evidence, rather than a set of recommendations about what people should or should not be eating.
Its report said 50g of processed meat a day – less than two slices of bacon – increased the chance of developing colorectal cancer by 18%.
– Processed meat has been modified to extend shelf life or change taste through smoking, curing or adding salt or preservatives.
Processed meat includes bacon, sausages, hot dogs, salami, corned beef, beef jerky and ham as well as canned meat and meat-based sauces.
By the 1870s, Chicago’s meat-processing plants were butchering more than 1 million hogs a year.
Red meat refers to all types of mammalian muscle meat, such as beef, veal, pork, lamb, mutton, horse, and goat.
Elizabeth Lund, a nutritionist from Norfolk in England, said lack of exercise and obesity were put women at a high risk for cancer. High temperature cooking, such as on a barbeque, can also create carcinogenic chemicals.
They recommend that people avoid eating processed meat, or reserve eating it to only a few special occasions during the year, such as a hot dog at the ballpark, a sausage when tailgating and bacon on Christmas morning, Bender said.
But, “there is little or no evidence that vegetarians in the United Kingdom have a lower risk of bowel cancer than meat-eaters”, he said. Red meat does have nutritional value and is a major source of iron, zinc and vitamin B12 as well as of protein.
If you eat a steak, your serving size should be no bigger than a deck of cards, Mr. Drendel said.
“This news is not totally surprising, but it is significant”, says Mayo Clinic preventive medicine expert Dr. Donald Hensrud.
A panel consisting 22 experts after reviewing the data collected from 800 different studies looked at the link between consumption of red meat or processed meat with the risk of certain cancers. The article originally stated that the AICR was involved in writing the new report, but it was not.
Advertisement
Editor’s note: A correction was made to this article on October 31.
