Processed meats and cancer - will you be giving them up?

suki1964

During the 70's 80's and 90's, most cancer deaths were smoking related

Then smoking became unfashionable and although people were dying of cancer, less of them were smokers

People are still dying of cancer and now they look at the next common denominater - now it's processed meat

End if the day processed meat is cheap and with so many in this country either unable to cook or find processed food cheaper and easier , it's obvious that there will be more cancer deaths in that group then smokers

I will carry on eating what I choose, smoking whilst I enjoy them and will be washing my meals down with red wine. I'm not obese, I don't struggle to walk or breath, I may not be very active out of work, but I'm enjoying my life to the best if my ability without costing the country a fortune in health care and benefits

armyknife

We all Must die of something; make/take your choice/chance?

pennystretcher

Moderation is everything - these things keep popping up but even "healthy" foods are not good for you if you eat too much...

http://www.womenshealthmag.com/food/dangerous-healthy-foods

So, no, will be eating the same way I do at the moment

marleyboy

In much the same way I wont be giving up sunbathing on the beach due to the risks, I wont be giving up my bacon butties.

[Deleted User]

With the price of meat being what it is I daresay it won't be that hard for price to make people eat less red meat. I eat far more veg than I used to simply to pad out what meat there is.I use a lot of oats and lentils in lasagne and mince dishes to streeetch the meat further.My days of best rump steak are long gone with Aberdeen Angus beef at £32 a kilo.I have never like burgers anyway so its not a problem for me and the only bacon I use now is the occasional 'bacon bits' from the supermarkets which go into omelettes,or quiches or spag bols for flavour. I don't like 'plastic ham and as I don't eat bread I rarely eat a sandwich now I prefer cream cheese on crackers with tomato,cucumber topping.Probably 80% of my food is vegetable based anyway.Sunday dinner at Dds is a meat(usually lamb)dish I like chicken and will only buy sausages if they are a good quality one as I would rather have one or two good bangers than a plateful of rubbishy ones.
but like most people on here I am afraid I take 'expert opinions' at their face value Its what they think is right or wrong, doesn't mean it set in stone, having gone through cancer and survived it hasn't stopped me from eating and enjoying what life I have left at my age.I'm far too long in the tooth to worry about 'experts' I probably have shoes older than most of them anyway :):)

Pollycat

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've spent over 5 hours in the car today, with the radio on, so heard a lot of phone ins on this ... and 'experts' .... and newsreaders etc.

What I got out of it was utter confusion about what is processed and what isn't.... and how much is "OK".

People always say "in moderation", but that word is meaningless without a measurement. Anybody who gorges 24/7 on any item will use the phrase themselves and fool themselves into believing what they do is 100% right.

Is mince processed?

To answer your last question, it seems not:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21696532

As for 'moderation' being meaningless, it's only meaningless to those people who want to use it as an excuse to gorge on (for example) bacon 24/7.

As for measurement, it depends on your diet.
Having a bacon sarni every day if you have 2 rashers and don't eat any other proessed meat could be eating in moderation as 2 rashers of bacon is within the daily 'guidelines'.

When I use the word 'moderation' about myself, I maybe have a bacon sandwich once a month, a ham sandwich for lunch perhaps once a fortnight, I chuck a bit of chorizo in my chicken casserole every 2 months.
I don't eat bought burgers, i make my own from butcher's steak mince.
I don't buy chill-cook meals.
As far as I'm concerned, I don't consunme in excess of the 70gm per day guidelines (or the proposed 50gm) so I consume processed meat in moderation.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Soo the bash our bacon sarnies and slate our sausages but what about all the other food products with manmade additives?? Or maybe it is the chemicals being sprayed on our fruit and veg breaking down our emune system and causing cancer?? Or maybe the effects of the plastic wrappers etc that our fresh food is displayed in???

The flame resistant chemicals in/ on our clothes ?? Air fresheners?? Chemicals in paint we breath in?? What about food stored in tins ??

Or all this is a ploy ?? As alot of processed meat is imported ??

We have our own pigs , and when we heard this on the news, hubby and I had a chat about it, it could also be the way the animal is reared and fed.
When we go to the livestock market, what the dealers buy to go into your sausages is awful, more or less the end of life pigs, that are just about to keel over, got growths, can't walk etc go into sausages. Along with imported meat..

Go direct to the farmer/ producer if possible .

phizzimum

On Radio 4 they interviewed a statistician who explained the figures very well. Eating processed meat has been shown to increase risk of bowel cancer by 18 %.

One man 1 in 15 will develop bowel cancer. Increasing this by 18% by eating processed meat means the chance will be 1 in 13.

Woman are at slightly less risk of this form of cancer.

My personal view is that moderation is the key, but I thought I'd share those numbers as I found them helpful.

[Deleted User]

lessonlearned wrote: »

Depends on how it is cured, what preservatives are used.

No it doesn't. Smoked meat is also a risk, and smoking's been used as a preservative for centuries too.

Goldiegirl

I very rarely eat any meats that have been processed, as they have too much salt in them for the low sodium diet that I need to follow.


We eat red meat (such as beef, pork or lamb) a couple of times a week, and have no plans to stop. Although phizzimum's post was very helpful