Sausages, like sunshine, are beneficial in moderation, Germany’sagriculture minister said on Tuesday, after a World Health Organization (WHO) report warned that eating processed meats can cause cancer. The study had warned that processed meat products, including salami and smoked bacon, are carcinogenic and pose a risk as high as that from asbestos, or smoke from tobacco or a diesel engine.
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Dr. Alok Khorana is a cancer expert at Cleveland Clinic.
“It did come back and say that cigarettes are still 20 times more likely to cause cancer than these meats are”.
The association also raised concern with how red meat is cooked.
“Consumption of red meat was also positively associated with pancreatic and with prostate cancer”. (It’s still better for the pigs while they’re alive, though!) The problem could lie in the meat itself and how it’s broken down in the gut, or it could lie in the chemicals such as nitrite preservatives used in processed meat.
They found that each 50 gram portion of processed meat eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18 percent.
Members of the beef industry were quick to react to the move. “Billions of dollars have been spent on studies all over the world and no single food has ever been proven to cause or cure cancer”.
Cancer researchers from the Irish Cancer Society say while cutting down on red meat is never a bad thing, the odd sausage will do little harm.
Even nutritionists offered a few caveats on the news. “Meat is nutrient dense and contains high quality proteins, essential amino acids, thiamin (vitamin B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3), vitamin B6 and vitamin B12”, he added.
The global Agency for Research on Cancer has released a list of these for our perusal.
The agency said it did not have enough data to define how much processed meat is too unsafe, but said the risk grows with the amount consumed.
“Additionally, a positive association with the consumption of processed meat was found for stomach cancer”.
This was the advice of experts in Singapore, in the wake of a World Health Organisation agency saying on Monday that processed meat causes colorectal cancer. The research team looked at environmental and lifestyle factors that might contribute to the risk of developing cancer.
Count Woolsey among the Hank’s Haute Dog lovers who think a new report linking processed meats to cancer is a bunch of baloney!
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A member from the Meat Advisory Panel states that limiting red meat consumption is not the solution to avoid cancer but smoking cessation, maintaining the body’s BMI and limiting alcohol intake.
