Bacon and other processed meats can cause cancer, experts say

The American Cancer Society agrees with IARC and recommends that people eat more vegetables and less processed and red meats.

But this is too high, according to the WHO’s announcement today and the Government may now revise it down.

Meat has become a scapegoat, according to Roger Leicester, Director of Endoscopy at St George’s Hospital and director of the SW London Bowel Cancer Screening Programme.

Based on that analysis, the IARC classified processed meat as “carcinogenic to humans”, noting links in particular to colon cancer. The classification for red meat – defined as all types of mammalian meat, including beef, lamb and pork – reflected “limited evidence” that it causes cancer.

When it comes to processed meat, Kelowna dietitian Selena Devries says she has always told clients to decrease the amount they are consuming “because they are higher in fat and they are higher in sodium and those are two main things that Canadians are getting too much of.”Devries says things like deli meats and sausages shouldn’t be everyday foods”.

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The World Health Organization says just two strips of bacon can have an increased likelihood of cancer.

He said people should follow the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recommendations when eating meat.

“We don’t use any chemicals in our smoking, all of our meat is smoked with hickory, and we specifically in our smoking process burn the wood prior to smoking so we burn off anything that could be on the wood so we get a real clean smoke on our meat”, Will Carter, owner of Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, said.

Links to bowel cancer, one of the biggest global killers, are particularly strong, with estimations that half of cases could be prevented by healthier lifestyles. Instead, it advises that Americans minimize processed meats like bacon and sausage in their diets, and choose fish, poultry and beans as an alternative to red meat.

But the World Health Organization is expected to go further by saying processed meat causes cancer.

Processed meats include anything with a few sort of preservative, like salt, smoking or curing.

Processed meat has previously been blamed for one in 30 deaths and is seen as risky because preserving techniques can raise levels of cancer-causing chemicals.

The North American Meat Institute argued in a statement that “cancer is a complex disease not caused by single foods”.

“For me, they don’t concern me a ton just because there are so many items out there right now that are supposedly carcinogenics”, Elizabeth Merrett of Lincoln said.

‘Risks and benefits must be considered together before telling people what to eat, drink, drive, breathe, or where to work’.

“There are many, many products that contribute to our health”, Russell said.

The World Cancer Research Fund recommends avoiding processed meat altogether.