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What happened to the good ole days when anything enjoyable didn’t kill us?
Like bacon, and sausages and asbestos.
THE World Health Organisation (WHO) caused a stink this week by announcing processed meats are carcinogenic.
And there I was thinking the only way a bacon sandwich could kill me was if I denied myself a bacon sandwich.
Now it appears hotdogs, ham, jerky, prosciutto and all that other good stuff is more toxic than Newcastle City Council politics.
Global reaction was swift and sanguine, as summed up in this Facebook post:
“F--- cancer and f--- the WHO, the organisation, not the band; unless the band has a problem with bacon, in which case f--- them too.”
The world, it seems, is attached to its ham, particularly, I find, when associated with cheese, schnitzel and possibly a hangover.
Alas, hangovers, for me, have been a fading memory this Ocsober. Hopefully it’s only the memory of hangovers that’s fading and not memory itself.
What happened to the good ole days when anything enjoyable didn’t kill us?
Like bacon, and sausages and asbestos.
With due respect to those who remain resolutely calm during a crisis, we’re all gonna die!! So why deny what brings us pleasure? Like salami.
Old-school butchers will tell you it’s not ‘‘processed food’’ that’s bad for you, but the amount of hysteria consumed with it.
Oh, and the chemicals, which pesky scientists keep pointing out and which the interweb thingy keeps distorting, generating hysteria that now threatens to impact our enjoyment of Christmas ham.
The writing has been on the wall for processed meats for several years.
For most of us it spelt BLT.
The question now remains: Are sausages bad for us? The answer may be ‘‘yes’’, if people start eating bean salad for lunch and we have to be in confined spaces with those people after lunch.
The International Accreditation and Recognition Council (IARC for short – or should that be ICARK? or IARC UP) puts processed meat in the same group (1) as tobacco, although according to WHO, a ham sandwich isn’t as risky as a 20-a-day smoking habit. But don’t tell Mama Cass that.
Red meat is in group 2A on the list of doom, one sub-lethal level below processed meats, meaning it can still lead to death, particularly if you are a cow, but whether that constitutes a causal connection to cancer in humans remains a definite ‘‘maybe/maybe not’’.
The red meat industry has rejected any comparison between cigarettes and meat, although technically you can smoke both, butrarely do you see couples indulge in a juicy rissole after mad passionate love.
Nutritionists maintain the cancer risk is relatively small and that meat has other benefits.
Whether putting hairs on your chest offsets colorectal cancer remains to be seen.
Experts say much bigger risk factors are obesity and lack of exercise.
Otherwise known in Australia as World’s Biggest Loser, or living the dream.
Critics argued the IARC panel tortured the data in order to ensure a specific outcome, ie. clicks on its website.
Lord knows, stats get confusing. Take alcohol, for example – in moderation, of course.
Consuming three alcoholic drinks a day can reduce the chance of heart attack, but may be enough to cause liver cancer. Three alcoholic drinks a day may also be just enough to take your mind off both thoughts.
Half of Australians are unaware excessive alcohol increases cancer risk anyhow, and we’ll see proof of that next Tuesday when the race that slows the nation takes its toll.
There’s no strong evidence linking fresh white meats such as chicken, turkey, or fish to any types of cancer, yet, but experts are working on it.
According to the most recent estimates by the Global Burden of Disease project, an independent academic research organisation with what can only be described as a morbid fascination, about 34,000 cancer deaths a year worldwide are attributable to diets high in processed meat.
Eating red meat, on the other hand, has not yet been established as a cause of cancer.
But if it was, and there’s a strong chance that it isn’t, it could be responsible for 50,000 cancer deaths a year worldwide.
Contrast these numbers with the 1million cancer deaths a year globally caused by tobacco smoking, 600,000 a year caused by alcohol consumption and the untold morbidity rate from worrying about what’s going to take you down.
Which raises the question, is the risk higher with different groups, like children?
Given the “excessive consumption factor’’ of the dialogue, probably yes, if you eat too many of them.
Should we stop eating meat?
If you’re a practising vegetarian, probably yes, although you may have a bit of time up your sleeve until you get good at it.
How much meat is it safe to eat?
I’ll leave the final word on that to Wallsend resident Margaret Priest who says she has loved ham, sausages, bacon and red meat since she was a child.
“I am now 70 years of age,’’ Margaret wrote. ‘‘Both of my parents loved their bacon and eggs for breakfast along with other meats on a daily basis and died within seven months of one another, so I am now a bit concerned by these latest findings.
‘‘Mind you Mum and Dad were both in their 90s when they died.’’
