The agency’s director, Dr Christopher Wild, said that the findings support recommendations for people to limit their meat intake.
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The United Nations health agency says eating processed meats increases your risk of cancer, but not everyone shares those concerns.
The definite link between processed meats and cancer puts them in the same category as smoking, in that they are both now known to cause cancer.
“This decision doesn’t mean you need to stop eating any red and processed meat”.
Researchers classified processed meats as carcinogenic, definitely linking them to colorectal cancer. A few 1 million cancer deaths a year globally are due to tobacco, just 34,000 are blamed on diets high in processed meat.
Sausages, like sunshine, are beneficial in moderation, Germany’s agriculture minister said on Tuesday, after a World Health Organization (WHO) report warned that eating processed meats can cause cancer. If you do eat unprocessed red meat, prefer parts that are low fat and eat less than you would want to.
The group noted that red meat and processed meat consumption varies greatly between different countries, and that the risk increased with the amount eaten per person.
Examples of processed meat include hot dogs (frankfurters), ham, sausages, corned beef, and beef jerky as well as canned meat and meat-based preparations and sauces.
Experts from the WHO’s worldwide Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France, studied 800 cases. Processed meat was found as carcinogenic to humans due to the connection observed with colorectal cancer after the study. However, the organization said red meat still has “nutritional value”.
Red meat, meanwhile, is now classified as “probably carcinogenic”, based on limited evidence that its consumption causes cancer in humans. And as more studies tackle this question, the accumulated evidence is becoming weaker, not stronger.
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Loic Le Marchand is one of 22 doctors and scientists behind the report.
