Processed meat contains things that might not be good for the human body to consume.
But what are those things?
And WHYYYYY BACON?!
WHYYYYYY?!
meat-lovers pizzas Cancer and bacon, two words no breakfast-lover
wants to hear, the yearning for bacon is just too strong.
Processed meat has been a bane for years… and a new study confirms what many other studies
have: Red Meat is BAD (especially when processed).
Carcinogen is a word thrown around about sun exposure, Melphalan, alcoholic beverages,
Plutonium, Crystalline: in the form of Quartz or Cristobalite, Smokeless tobacco, smoking
tobacco, Leather dust, Silica Dust, wood dust… whatever a bunch of dusts… coffee, and ALSO
exposure to the little black bits on the edge of grilled meats.
These are all on a list created by the World Health Organization's International Agency
for Research on Cancer.
Fun fact: there are 984 things on the list; some cause cancer, some don't.
But, processed meat is now there because of its nasty tendency to cause colorectal cancer.
Maybe.
Kind of.
Maybe.
When we cook meats, like hot dogs, bacon or fancy steak (processed or not) we chemically
alter them.
As meat cooks, the chemicals found inside of them can form heterocyclic amines (HCAs),
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and advanced glycation end products (AGEs).
These compounds are fine on their own, but when we eat them, they break down and mess
with our colonic DNA causing colorectal cancer!
So the World Health Org finally added these to the list as a Group 1 carcinogen, meaning
it DEFINITELY causes cancer -- the thing is, Plutonium causes a lot of cancer, bacon only
causes a little.
They're not equally dangerous.
But the question is, what the hell is a processed meat?
Processed red meat, is mammalian muscle meat such as beef, veal, pork, lamb, mutton, horse,
and goat which has been transformed due to "salting, curing, fermentation, smoking, or
other processes to enhance flavor or improve preservation."
Note, unlike some Paleo peeps, cutting does not count as "processing."
When meat is processed it is chemically altered to increase shelf life, change the flavor,
or be more stable.
Unfortunately for sausage-lovers, carcinogenic chemicals like PAHs can be created during
processing, but so can n-nitroso compounds!
N-Nitroso compounds are some of the most carcinogenic things on earth, and usually result when meat
is exposed to nitrites or nitrogen oxides.
We've known N-Nitrosos are carcinogens for more than 50 years, and people don't seem
to be dropping left and right, even though we're eating more meat today than 50 years
ago.
The WHO said a 50g increase in processed meat could increase cancer risk by 18 percent,
but also admitted the evidence is slight.
The thing is, humans built our society on the ability to get more energy from our food,
we cook it (which adds carcinogens) and we eat red meat but our ancient human ancestors
didn't live long enough to get cancer from these things!
Red meat was also added to the WHO's list as group 2A -- which means it probably causes
cancer.
FYI: red meat includes pork; don't give in to marketing.
We've known for a long time meats like these increased risks of cancer.
A 28-year-long Archives of Internal Medicine study published in 2012 found people who eat
more red meat die younger from cardiovascular disease and cancers; even when adjusted for
other life factors.
So, processed meats are any meat that's been altered from its natural state with salts
or additives, and red meat it just mammalian meat; fowl not included.
In the end, as people live longer, and want to be healthier into their 70s and 80s, we
have to watch what we eat.
It's a fact of life.
The easiest way is to reduce processed meats in your diets, and even having a couple of
meat-free days a week will teach you to eat a variety of things, rather than just hamburgers.
Vegetarians don't rejoice too much, meat is still a great source of B vitamins, minerals,
iron and zinc!
Eating it is still recommended, but just… not as much.
If you're one of our critical thinkers out there, you're probably wondering -- as we
did -- how the heck the meat industry didn't put a kielbasa-sized kibosh on this whole
announcement, as it was sure to affect their bottom line…
So how powerful is the meat industry, anyway?
How much red meat do you eat?
Do you plan to eat less?