Could your bacon butty give you cancer?

“Overall, the Working Group classified consumption of processed meat as “carcinogenic to humans” on the basis of sufficient evidence for colorectal cancer”, the report reads. “The Working Group classified consumption of red meat as “probably carcinogenic to humans”,” it added.

It said, while red meats were “probably carcinogenic” the evidence was limited. “People are being wrongly unsettled when eating meat is put on the same level as asbestos or tobacco”.

Pulse.ng reported yesterday, October 26, that the Wold Health Organisation, WHO, has announced that processed meat is to be categorised along with cigarettes as a cause of cancer.

– Sales of fresh and processed meats reached $25.5 billion in the year ending August 22, up 5.1 percent from the same period a year before, according to research firm The Nielsen Company.

NAMI vice president Betsy Booren pointed to the high consumption of processed meats as part of the Mediterranean diet, yet “people in countries where the Mediterranean diet is followed, like Spain, Italy and France, have a few of the longest lifespans in the world and excellent health”.

“We’ve known for a few time about the probable link between red and processed meat, and bowel cancer”, Professor Tim Key of Oxford University said in a statement from charity Cancer Research UK.

“For an individual, the risk of developing colorectal cancer due to their consumption of processed meat remains small, but this risk increases with the amount of meat consumed”. The IARC found links mainly with bowel cancer, but it also observed associations with pancreatic and prostate cancer.

“I try to worry for all beef producers”, he said. Visitors at a food court in New York’s Penn Station, which houses a Nathan’s Famous hot dog restaurant, mostly said the World Health Organization report won’t change what they eat.

That paper reviewed the academic studies conducted on common cookbook ingredients.

The agency made no specific dietary recommendations and said it did not have enough data to define how much processed meat is too unsafe. “But the effects of eating meat may be minimal, if anything”.

“They should explain if a few processed food does not contain these kinds of additives, the risk of causing cancer would be lower”, Simon Wong Ka-wo, chairman of the Chamber of Food and Beverage Industry, told the South China Morning Post.

Red meat was classed as the second-highest.