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A new study has recommended drastically reducing the amount of processed meat in your diet, warning that just one sausage a day raises your cancer risk by 20%. But while the study is full of worthwhile information, it also contains more than a hint of scare-mongering, nanny state-ism and a large dollop of the glaringly obvious.
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So sausages are bad for you, eh? Thanks for that. And there was me thinking they were an excellent source of vitamin C and antioxidants. Next they will be saying that I should cut down on the amount of heroin I inject into my eyeballs.
Maybe it’s the 10g of saturated fat per pork link, or the lack of any real nutritional benefit, but spending months on a report which tells us that too much processed meat is bad for our health seems to me like a massive waste of everyone’s time and money.
My niece could have told you that. And she’s four.
But that is exactly what the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) has done. The organisation’s experts have released a report which claims that eating just 50g of processed meat (the equivalent of one sausage or three rashers of bacon) a day can significantly raise the risk of bowel cancer.
Bowel cancer kills 16,000 people in the UK every year, making it the second deadliest form of the disease. However, as the WCRF goes on to point out, fewer than one in three Brits is aware of these dangers.
Professor Martin Wiseman, an adviser to the charity, said: “We are more sure now than ever before that eating processed meat increases your risk of bowel cancer and this is why WCRF recommends that people avoid eating it.”
Processed meats are those which have been preserved by smoking, salting or other additives and include pastrami, ham, salami, hot dogs, hamburgers, mince and, of course, bacon and sausages.
Professor Wiseman continues: “When you consider that eating 50g of processed meat a day can increase your risk of bowel cancer by about a fifth, it is clear that you can make a positive difference by cutting out as much as possible.”
Too much of a good thing
Fair enough. But these points do raise some pertinent questions. First of all, does anyone out there actually eat that much meat? And if you are tucking in to sausages or bacon every day of the week, are you under any illusions that this constitutes a healthy, balanced diet? I doubt it very much.
So while the charity points out that two thirds of the UK’s population is unaware of the link between processed meats and bowel cancer, it is patronising of them to suggest that people are blithely scoffing down sausages and bacon every day while oblivious to any of the health risks.
Of course eating large quantities of these foods is bad for you. So is drinking a bottle of wine every night, though we are repeatedly told that a glass of antioxidant rich red a day is good for the heart.
The WCRF’s study smacks of scare-mongering, whereas surely this is yet another case of ‘everything in moderation’. “The safest amount to eat is none at all,” says Professor Wiseman, but where is the fun in that?
To be fair to the professor, he does go on to say: “We do recommend that people avoid it completely, but it is not a case of all or nothing. Cutting down the amount of processed meat you eat can also reduce your risk of developing bowel cancer.”
Heard it all before?
The WCRF’s shocking revelations that a fat-laden diet could seriously harm your chances of seeing your grandchildren grow up follows another groundbreaking study by the charity, released last year, which said that, er, processed meats can cause cancer.
Meanwhile, one of the WCRF’s other main findings was that small amounts of processed meat raises the risk of bowel cancer by (you guessed it) 20%. And in case you think we are suggesting that the charity is repeating itself, we should also say that they found putting on weight, drinking alcohol and eating other foods such as red meat can increase your chances of developing various types of cancer.
Is nothing sacred?
In light of this piece of research, certain newspapers have of course covered this story with the usual amount of levelheadedness – almost all of them with a picture of a person eating a potentially lethal sausage or staring at it as if it were a stick of dynamite about to go off in their hands.
But before you throw away your frying pan or hurl a brick through your butcher’s window, consider the fact that a full English breakfast, one of the great pleasures in life, may not be as unhealthy as some people would have you believe. Sure, if you fry your eggs in lard or keep all the fat on your bacon, then your breakfast contains more saturated fat than is necessary.
However, as the Food Standards Agency points out: “If you grill lean bacon, poach the eggs and include baked beans, grilled tomatoes and mushrooms cooked without fat, and serve it all up with thick crusty bread, you’ll have yourself a delicious cooked breakfast that is also healthy and balanced.”
The red pigment in tomatoes is lycopene, which has been strongly linked with cancer prevention. Cooking tomatoes is also supposed to make them healthier, as this makes it easier for the body to absorb the fruit’s nutrients. Regular sausages, meanwhile, can be substituted for a much healthier vegetarian variety.
Mushrooms are an excellent source of selenium, riboflavin and potassium, while eggs are full of protein, vitamins A, B, D and E, iron, zinc and are low in calories. Studies by Cancer Research UK and the Medical Research Council, meanwhile, have linked baked beans and other high fibre foods to a reduced risk of cancer.
So with the right ingredients and improved cooking methods, a cooked breakfast can actually become part of a healthy, balanced diet. Just don’t go doing it too often, otherwise you’ll never hear the end of it.
Do 'this' do 'that' - Don't 'do this' - do 'that' !!!!!
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