What is everyone going to do about sausages?

[Perfectomonday]

So sausages, bacon and other processed meats are now proven to definitely cause cancer, appearing in the top group of causes on the cancer research website.

I tried having a serious conversation with H about altering our eating habits since this has been in the news, but he laughs and says its nonsense.

It's not though is it? I've had a few other blank faces on mentioning it to other people and I'm guessing reactions were similar when it was first discovered that smoking causes cancer.

Maybe I'm taking this so seriously after losing a very close family member to a digestive cancer?

What is everyone else going to do about sausages/bacon etc?

Everyone on my mums side, including my mum, died of bowel cancer. I am very cautious about my diet because of this but I will still eat sausages once in a while because I enjoy them. Life is for enjoying yourself, I genuinely think there are so many things we do everyday that put our lives as risk sometimes you have to just stop worrying about it all. Getting in a car, going on a plane, breathing in car fumes when you walk about, eating sugar, not exercising enough or too much etc everything will kill us one way or another.

One of the biggest things to try to prevent bowel cancer is actually eating enough fibre. Most people don’t eat nearly enough. I do try to eat reasonably healthily and make sure I eat as much fibre and veg as I can.

Turkey sausages are delicious

They increase the risk of cancer. That increase is from a small base, so the absolute risk is (for example) much lower than smoking.

This, with bells on. Eating processed meats raises the relative risk of cancer, the absolute risk of cancer is still small.

To quote an article explaining the science, "If this is correct, the WCRF’s analysis suggests that, among 1000 people who eat the most processed meat, you’d expect 66 to develop bowel cancer at some point in their lives – 10 more than the group who eat the least processed meat."

Everything in moderation!

I think the blank faces will be from your stance “that’s it’s proven to definitively cause”.
But that’s not the case, there’s a link to higher risk from increased nitrates consumption.

www.cancertherapyadvisor.com/home/tools/fact-sheets/dietary-nitrates-nitrites-and-cancer/
Interesting read, nitrates in water, and mixed results...

What is everyone else going to do about sausages/bacon etc?

Going to keep on eating them once a fortnight or so. You seem to think they're on a par with cigarettes in terms of impact on health. they're not. And you also seem to be having some confusion regarding mince? Mince is ground beef, it isn't processed in the way that sausagemeat is.

among 1000 people who eat the most processed meat, you’d expect 66 to develop bowel cancer at some point in their lives – 10 more than the group who eat the least processed meat."

So I have (at most) a 1% absolute increase in cancer risk, when compared against going vegan. Bargain.

I don’t eat any pig products. I did try Linda McCartney sausages, and they’re tasty... but they contain non sustainable palm oil, so are not cruelty free at all, as habitats are being lost because of land being cleared for growing.

My life will be sausage free from now on. It’s not the worst thing that could happen.

Aldi do nice chicken sausages or veggie sausages which are both really tasty!

But that’s not the case, there’s a link to higher risk from increased nitrates consumption.

Yes, a very small increase in risk.

Watch What the Health on Netflix. Very interesting.

White meat isn't that much better.

Better give up barbecues too, charred meat is also carcinogenic, so charred sausages would be lethal I expect.

Linda McCartney sausages are foul, too salty and contain palm oil.

Cauldron veggie sausages? Any thoughts on those?
Beetroot sausages, various makes, some palm oil free, some not.

Well while we're at it, if you want to give yourself a scare read up about the VOCs that constantly leech into your home from vinyl flooring, shower curtains, cling film etc. pulls the pin and runs away

Nothing. Any action you take carries a level of risk - I don't want to live in a bubble.

Paint, furniture, air fresheners, mattresses, carpets, insulation...VOCs are everywhere and I know this particularly well because I am asthmatic and it so happens that they all make me wheeze. I didn't know they were carcinogenic though.

I can be like the canary in the coalmine if there's a link.

I make my own sausages and burgers, so no processed meats. Really easy to do.
We don’t have bacon very often because we both use hotels for work quite often and my husband sneaks in bacon then.
Vegetarian meals three times a week.

We don’t tend to barbecue much anyway.

It's not sausages, as I understand it - it's the curing process that's the problem, particularly if it uses nitrates, and normal British sausages aren't cured. They may be fatty, but they aren't cancer causing in the way bacon can be.

It's not sausages, as I understand it

Yep, pretty sure there was a report last year that said the risk was from hot dog type sausages. British style sausages are essentially just minced pork, not processed in the same way at all.

You. An buy loads of sausages and bacon and salamis that don't contain nitrates these days.

I stopped eating pork in November for ethical reasons and sometimes I miss bacon but there are too many reasons for me not to eat it. And I have other vices, god knows.

You could eat red meat cooked Indian / South East Asian style in spices - eating spicy food is known to reduce the risk of bowel cancer. So you could offset the risk.

Sausages aren’t that bad...don’t contain nitrites and aren’t technically processed food. Parma ham fine too...

I'm simply going to continue to buy my herb & plain sausages made just from meat, no added nitrates, from my local butcher.
Delicious, and supporting a local business.

UK sausages are made from ground/mince pork, not processed/preserved pork. Get your self to the butchers or buy decent sausages from the supermarket. Continental sausages contain preserved/dried/processed pork, the same way that bacon and ham is processed/preserved.

Chorizo, pepperoni, salami etc are the ones to avoid.