To not have known that deli chicken is a level 1 carcinogen

The problem with the WHO cancer research classifications is that "carcinogenic" refers only to whether or not a given foodstuff has a proven/probable/otherwise link to cancer, but says nothing at all about the probability of consumption leading to it. So different foodstuffs may bear the same label, but one will carry an actual quantifiable risk and another will be almost completely harmless.

Your diet sounds just fine OP and reasonably 5⁵. Don't think there a reason to worry if you simply carry on as you were.

Have you never heard of Spam or corned beef? DIY cured meats in wartime and rationing? The fillers and additives in medicines before they were regulated? The shite they used to bulk up things like flour and confectionary? As PPs have said, processed foods aren’t a new thing unique to our generation.

It's not tricky to understand.

and I'm not stressed at all 😄

@specialsauce

Our mothers, their smoking and meat eating habits, will not have been layered on top with a childhood full of absolute chemical soup like our children are faced with.
In fact, our mothers probably had a pretty good launchpad of undoctored food sources as children if they were born pre- 1950. It may be why they are all living so long right now.

I have no idea what this means. But it sounds a lot like stressing to me.

I don't think people are stressing. Just avoiding as much of the chemical crap as possible that is being put into our food.

I think it pays to wise up.

What goes into our food is changing all the time, and the young generation will have been eating it for the longest. Our mothers, their smoking and meat eating habits, will not have been layered on top with a childhood full of absolute chemical soup like our children are faced with.
In fact, our mothers probably had a pretty good launchpad of undoctored food sources as children if they were born pre- 1950. It may be why they are all living so long right now.
Today's children and teens will be the first generation where life expectancy actually begins to fall for the first time - ever.

Couldn’t agree more!

The stress of worrying about all of this to the point you’re scanning everything you eat through an app will be probably do more damage than eating the chicken sandwich.

People want to believe it's more in their control than it is

Exactly this. People worry about eating a bit of salami, using sunscreen or coming into contact with a vape. We’re surrounded by carcinogenic exhaust fumes every day. We consume microplastics every day. We orbit a gigantic carcinogenic ball of gas. There’s no escaping it.

Cancer is a lottery. It’s an error in your DNA. Your DNA is replicating constantly and inevitably things get translated incorrectly for any number of reasons. Our bodies have systems in place to deal with this, but sometimes those systems fail. Often for reasons way beyond your control.

Eating healthily is always a good idea, but this level of stress about food is not. And I’m tired of the smug speculation around cancer patients’ diets I see over and over again. Maybe leave the speculation to their oncologists, eh?

Some pre cooked chicken seems to better than others. If you read the labels it’s helpful. I know it’s expensive but the M&S cooked chicken is nice and just got added dextrose. Yes its sugar. Think they put it on the skin to make it brown. But I don’t eat the skin. It is v hard though. We’ve stopped ham and sausages. We still eat lean red meat for iron. But just once a week.

Love this. Thank you x

I don't want to be seen off by a chicken sarnie though really

(Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather not unknowingly ingest carcinogenic chicken)

Well we’ve all got to die of something.

It's weird how governments want to keep it secret. I guess because so much of it is leaching into our rivers

It seems pretty likely that deli chicken could be very harmful.

I just found this ingredient in Tesco chicken slices:

Pentasodium salt or triphosphoric acid. STPP is an ingredient in detergents and soaps. Most gel, liquid, tablet, and powder forms of both laundry and dishwasher detergent contain STPP. As a food, it is generally regarded as safe, but large ingested amounts of the product can be toxic.8 Feb 2024

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/299955420?sc_cmp=ppcGHS+-+Grocery+-+NewMPX_PMAX_All_OT_Click%2BCollect_Online+Budget_1011017**299955420*&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwrKu2BhDkARIsAD7GBos1ukkZu4JtMINmmy-rtcCnUqHlAQx5VprncXL_JyLDZ4CvyxM4Gl0aAkOfEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

I've stopped buying it @Agapornis .
I found it made me go to the loo too often.

Re marmite - is it a upf ?

People want to believe it's more in their control than it is.. and there's a wierd edge to it of blame. Oh they ate too much sugar! It won't happen to me because I'm better than that.

Yep, it’s quite scary how many people see to think all cancers are caused by bad diets.

Dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO) kills, and it's in everything. It causes corrosion and suffocation in large quantities. Evidence has shown it's found in every human. And yet we keep consuming it. There is no hope.

Exactly, micro plastics, fertilizer and pesticides, vast plumes of air pollution from cars and planes and container ships (bringing your latest impulse buy half way round the word) ...

Great post @Allwatchedoverbytrees.

" people want to believe it's more in their control that it is... And there is a weird edge to it of blame "

I agree so much. It's almost like people have replaced religion in the sense of believing in god with a new belief that with a few dietary tweaks they can be masters of their own destiny.

Again, I am all for trying to be healthy. But this idea that if someone gets cancer they must have eaten more ham sandwiches than you is both ignorant and insulting.

On a similar vein I had someone who is otherwise intelligent genuinely insisting that yoga and the latest "superfood" fad (kale/pomegranate/ blueberries whatever it was that week) could cure a genetic condition I have had since birth.

Maybe you should educate yourself!!!

People have been eating processed meats for quite a long time, it's not something that has just appeared in our diets.

Those of you who think that by making it your life's mission to only eat "healthy" food (and bore the rest of us) you are somehow guaranteed a life free of ill health may well find yourself disappointed.

I mean this is like the plastic straws isn't it?
Everyone worried about eating store bought chicken sandwiches.. meanwhile companies pumping out tonnes of pollution unregulated, every day.. microplastics in the water supply.
Government's need to do more to regulate. The choices of you as an individual do very little.
Even the chicken you buy fresh is probably pumped full of crap. Unless you reared it yourself.. but even then it's been drinking the water full of microplastics