Aibu to have serious ham guilt?

[mrsMmrsIMrsSSI]

So I stupidly watched 'what the health' on Netflix the other night. I kid you not I have stayed awake for the second night in a row thinking about all the ham my DS1 has eaten.
It says that one portion of processed meat a day raises your chance of developing a cancer by 51%.
Although he eats well, he is partial to a ham and salad sandwich and has that maybe 4 days a week (not yet at school, morning at nursery etc)
He had a humous and cucumber sandwich yesterday but was quizzing where the ham was.
Honestly, I can't stop thinking about it. I always thought I was doing the best by my children diet wise and now I feel like I fucked them before I even started. I feel like I want to be vegan but how on earth do I make that lifestyle change?!
I knew hot dogs were bad and obviously avoid things like that but canned tuna also falls into this catergory. So the quick midweek go to of tuna pasta salad is also now on the banned list?
We were meant to be having stewed chicken for dinner!
What do I do!

Stop watching scare films? You can take any food and link it to causing cancer either the food itself or how it's made (even water can cause cancer)

It says that one portion of processed meat a day raises your chance of developing a cancer by 51%.

Surely that can't be right.

51% increase on tiny is tiny

And here I thought you were going to worry about how pigs are one of the most intelligent animals on earth and are well aware of what's happening to them and their offspring.

What you're feeding your child is bad for him. There's plenty of meat that isn't processed meat if you want to carry on with that. Being vegan isn't healthy either, though I think he'd be pretty horrified if you really explained to him what you're putting in his body.

Think ethical, sustainable and as far from processed as possible. Lots of fruit and veg.

The figure is mangled.

Approx 50% of people (51% of women) are now aware of the link between processed meat and cancer.

Eating processed meat every day increases your risk of bowel cancer by 18%.

Eating no meat would save approx. 10% of bowel cancer cases.

Stop worrying, OP.

My Sister was vegetarian and ate clean. Fit, healthy, non smoker, didn't drink, massively into horse riding and looking after herself.

She died of cancer.

There are steps to reduce, minimise and maybe prevent some cancers but I think if you are going to get it, you will. You will then spend hours wondering what you did wrong and the chances are, you did nothing wrong.

And to be clear, because stats are a mystery to many...

The 18% increase in bowel with daily intake of processed meat is a relative risk. 18% of processed meat eaters do not get bowel cancer.

The absolute risk of bowel cancer is 6% in non-processed meat eaters and 7% in daily processed meat eaters.

So, OP, if you fed him a ham sandwich every day of his life, over his lifetime, his risk of bowel cancer increases from 6% to 7%.

That's not particularly scary.

You don't give him processed meat every day now. And you aren't going to oversee his diet for even a 1/4 of his life.

I haven't seen the programme.

Whilst I don't think you are wrong to want to reduce the amount of processed food you eat, you will drive yourself mad if you keep this up.

The key word is moderation - everything in moderation.

So; less processed food, and sugar and more veg/salad and good protein sources.

What StealthPolarBear said.

Look at the baseline. If your chance of death/cancer is 1 in a million over lifetime, then having it increased by 51% is zip.

This also applies to % pay increases. 1% of fuck all is fuck all.

If you're going to watch scary films you need a better understanding of statistics - Maidofstars clarifies this nicely above.

Read Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. Improving your diet a bit is no bad thing. Panicking about statistics you don't entirely understand helps nobody.

I watched part of that documentary and turned it off because the science as he presented it sounded seriously dodgy. Don't do this to yourself!

My goodness you have all made me feel so much better.
Funnily enough I have a qualification in statistics haha! Clearly helped me out in life....But they didn't give the statistic of getting cancer without eating processed meat so I actually don't know what I thought.

Also to the person who said about how they kill pigs. Really wasn't what I was asking about but I am sorry if I offended you and pigs. I'm not as selfless as you to put them before the thought of gammon!

As others have said, OP, for it to actually give him cancer, he would probably need to be having it put into him via IV drip and even then it would be a chance thing.

If you can afford it and it would set your mind at ease, he could have fresh ham off the deli at supermarkets once a week or whatever as that's better than the ham that comes in the plastic packs.

But yes, he'd have to be snorting it powdered for it to be an issue (snorting, get it, ham, pigs, haha)

You can't prevent cancer. You can eat the perfect diet, never touch drugs, alcohol or cigarettes and you could still die of cancer at 35.

Yes, you can work to prevent it - eat healthily, plenty of water, cut down on red meat and don't smoke but it won't necessarily change anything.

Don't worry! Documentaries like that are designed to scare people - a 51% increase on a tiny percentage is still a tiny increase. They use big numbers to frighten you!

Buy ham cut off the bone.....from the deli counter.....not processed then. It's just meat...

To look at it positively, you've found out when he is still little, so that's great.

Bowel cancers typically present at around 66YO. They're usually very slow growing - possibly 20 years between being a harmless polyp and spreading. I think could be wrong, that we get less good at repairing cell damage from about the age of 50. And if your DS has also eaten lots of fruit and veg that will help to have prevented any potential harm from his sodium nitrites consumption.

Having said that, the incidence of bowel cancer in younger people is increasing. I was diagnosed aged 42.

Bowel cancer rates are much higher in western countries than in other parts of the world, but as well as eating much more meat, including processed meat we eat more sugar and refined carbs, more processed food in general and far less fibre. I heard on the radio about a population which eats a lot of Baobab berries and get far more fibre in their breakfast than most westerners eat in a whole day.

We can't be experts at everything. No doubt there will be new information about the unhealthy effects of our lifestyle before long.

Last stats I read were 1 in 18 people in UK get bowel cancer - which matches pp's 5 or 6% of the population info.

Take no notice of this sort of wanky programme and/or stupid reporting. We're all going to die of something and nearly all dietary advice (apart from 'eat a reasonably varied diet with a fair bit of fruit and veg) is nonsense.

Read Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. He's pretty good at explaining health statistics and why they are bollocks.

Ham IS processed meat, knife wielding deli counter or not. Pork is not preserved, it's fresh. Gammon/ham is preserved, it is 'processed'.

And to further confuse things, most countries (not here) make sausages with preserved meat, and/or preserve the sausage. Our fresh pork sausages don't come into the 'processed meat' category, a fact which is usually ignored by the popular press.

I thought you were going to say you felt guilty about the pigs dying :(

They are very intelligent creatures, and make affectionate pets. They feel pain. I can't grasp eating them.

YY to Benjamin Sodium nitrites are the problem. Many sausages are not cured.

Wow this has scared me even with all the people saying it's not scary. My DS eats a ham sandwich every day in school 😱 it's the only sandwich type thing he'll eat.