A new report from two major research groups just linked processed meat — including everyone's favorite, bacon — to cancer.
If this story sounds familiar, that's because it is.
Just last October, the World Health Organization published a paper
concluding that eating processed meats were linked with a higher risk of developing colorectal cancer, a specific type of the disease that begins
in the colon or rectum.
This new report looks even worse for America's favorite breakfast meat.
In it, the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) and the
World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) find links between eating
processed meat and developing cancer of the lower stomach.
The links are creepily similar to those found in the previous WHO report on colorectal cancer and processed meat.
In fact, the researchers found the exact same risk factor — down to the
gram and percentage — for eating processed meat and developing
lower stomach cancer as the WHO had found for eating processed
meat and developing colorectal cancer.
Here's a quote from the new AICR and WCRF report on stomach cancer:
For every 1.8 ounces (50 grams) of processed meat eaten per day,
every day — the equivalent of one hot dog — the risk of cancers of t
he lower stomach ... increases by 18 per cent.
And here's the older WHO report and press release on colorectal cancer:
The experts concluded that each 50 gram portion of processed meat
eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18 per cent.
According to American Institute for Cancer Research Vice President
of Research Dr. Susan Higginbotham, that's purely coincidental, as
both reports used different publications and did different analyses.
And we need to keep in mind that, at the end of the day, these
estimates are just ballpark figures. They don't tell us precisely
what is causing disease or how it happens in the body. "Cancer
is complicated. It’s kind of showing there's an increase in risk
and we have ideas about why it might be happening but we're
not sure. And the fact that its happening in more than one cancer
is definitely interesting," Higginbotham says.
In other words, this is bad news for bacon.
Still, Higginbotham warns, you shouldn't go banning the ingredient
just yet. While these numbers are certainly scary, the situation is
probably nowhere near as bad as you think. It doesn't mean, for
example, that for every piece of bacon you consume, you're
drastically jacking up your chances of getting colorectal or lower
stomach cancer.
Okay, so how bad is it really?
Let's try comparing theoretical you with two of your theoretical
friends — Susie and Fred.
Susie is practically vegetarian. She's completely sworn off hot
dogs and smoked ham, but she maybe indulges in a few pieces
of bacon every month. You, on the other hand, make a mean
Saturday-afternoon BLT and have been known to occasionally
indulge in a hot dog at a baseball game. Then there's Fred. Fred
fries up a few pieces of bacon for breakfast every day, eats a
pastrami sandwich for lunch a few times a week, and typically
has ham for dinner.
Genetics and environmental factors aside, you and Susie both
are at pretty low risk of developing colorectal or lower stomach
cancer as a strict result of your eating habits, at least according
to these two reports. Neither of you is indulging in the equivalent
of a hot dog or a serving of pastrami each day. (Reminder: One daily
hot dog or its equivalent was amount of processed meat the study
found to be linked with an 18 per cent increased risk of the two cancers).
For Fred, it's a different story. He's eating plenty more than the
equivalent of a single hot dog each day, and, based on this research,
is more likely to develop one of these two cancer types over his lifetime
than you or Susie.
Is eating bacon as bad for you as smoking?
Lest you begin having flashbacks to the terrifying headlines of last year
which compared noshing on a few strips of delicious bacon with smoking cigarettes, the two are not equally unhealthy.
International research group Global Burden of Disease Project estimates
that roughly 34,000 cancer deaths per year across the globe can be
attributed to diets high in processed meats like bacon.
On the other hand, close to 29 times that amount — 1 million people —
die of cancer every year from smoking tobacco. Another 600,000 people
die each year as a result of alcohol consumption, and about 200,000
die each year as a result to air pollution, according to the Global Burden of Disease Project.
So keep that in mind before opting to ban processed meat from your diet altogether. Instead, just cut back a bit.
"I think that this just adds more support to the advice we’ve already
given to avoid processed meat," said Higginbotham. "It doesn’t change
our advice because we already saw this for colon cancer, but it strengthens
it. It’s just another way to look at things."
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