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Original poster

So tell me how ham and bacon (in particular) are so deadly and why I should eliminate them from my diet.

64 replies

northender · 31/10/2007 17:21

This was how this study was just reported on Radio 2 news. I realise bacon is high in salt and fat but as such it is cured pork so should we eliminate pork too? Bacon and ham were the 2 foods quoted that should not be eaten at all, not shitty value pork pies or sausages from the supermarket. This sort of reporting makes me so

OP posts:
Mercy · 31/10/2007 17:24

Which study northender? Do you have a link?

Lauriefairycake · 31/10/2007 17:24

nitrates apparently

southeastastra · 31/10/2007 17:25

i was wondering, but there you go.

we should drink 3 glasses of red wine a day too.

Mercy · 31/10/2007 17:32

Now that's the kind of nutritional advice I like!

Original poster
northender · 31/10/2007 17:35

link

OP posts:
Upwind · 31/10/2007 17:37

I heard "processed meats" such as bacon and ham
because of links with colorectal cancer

I know a lot of people who enjoy bacon butties and full cooked breakfasts and have lived to be a ripe old age. I have never known anyone who suffered from colorectal cancer. Therfore I suppose the risk is actually very small.

And this report will lead to all kinds of scare mongering and bankruptcies for pig breeders and processors. The irresponsible reporting really makes me why can't they give a measure of risk, something like: "the study suggests that enjoying regular bacon butties increases your lifetime risk of colorectal cancer from e.g. 1 in a 100 to 1.01 in a 100..."

Upwind · 31/10/2007 17:42

It is explained here

seems it might be the over cooking that is to blame you would think that would be easy to check...

Original poster
northender · 31/10/2007 17:56

I teach my kids that a healthy diet consists of all different foods, including sweets, cream cakes, chips etc but that those foods shouldn't be eaten too often. In a minute we'll be left with nothing to enjoy eating and drinking. The BBC are stating this report recommends avoiding alcohol completely and that even small amounts can be cancer causing

OP posts:
Upwind · 31/10/2007 18:03

I don't have access to the study but I wonder if the link could be as follows:

obese people are likely to be depressed/stressed/unhealthy and are vulnerable to cancer

obese people tend to eat a lot of processed meat and indulge in alcohol (or just less veg)

More red meat & more alcohol -> higher risk of cancer?

I don't understand how they could establish causality as opposed to correlation.

suedonim · 31/10/2007 18:04

Dh reckons that following all this dietary advice doesn't actually make you live longer. It just feels longer because you have no pleasures in your life.

Upwind · 31/10/2007 18:08

also I am much more interested in the risks to my health as a young woman, if enjoying wine and red meat means I am more likely to suffer from colorectal problems in my dotage I would take my chances. If it meant that there was a significant chance I would not see my dcs grow up I would cut them out of my diet.

pageturner · 31/10/2007 18:08

I think your dh is right, suedonim. I'm starting to feel a bit targeted, tbh. There seems to be a new report every day telling us to stop drinking and eating the things that we like. Jeez, could they just give us proper facts and let us make up our own minds about how we want to live our lives?!

sparkybabe · 31/10/2007 18:11

I think we should just eat what we like, in moderation. FFS even nutmeg is cancer-causing in high quantities.

PumpkinFang · 31/10/2007 18:11

I heard this on the radio. It eliminated so many good things from life.

You may very well live longer. Then again you may just die of boredom on a diet like that.

LoveAngel · 31/10/2007 18:30

The odd bacon sarnie us one of life's pelasures. I just don't buy all this 'dangerous food' malarkey. Everything in moderation.

SueBarooooItslikeaWarzone · 31/10/2007 19:08

yes, if you eat rabbit kibble you can live to a ripe old age and look like Gillian McKeith. Oh, it's a winner, isn't it?

Tinker · 31/10/2007 19:12

Why might red meat be linked to bowel cancer?

It's not certain why red meat may be linked to an increased risk of bowel cancer. Some researchers believe it may be linked to how the meat is cooked. When meat is cooked in a direct flame or at high temperatures, cancer-causing substances are produced on the surfaces of the meat.1,3

So, is slow roasted food ok? [hopeful emoticon]

bran · 31/10/2007 19:21

The trouble with most of these studies is that they concentrate on one illness, rather than whole body health. That's why there are so many conflicting health messages - eg alchol is bad for avoiding cancer, but a moderate amount of wine is good for the heart. I think there's a danger of people getting so fed up with conflicting advice that they won't bother to think about what they're eating.

Minum · 31/10/2007 19:24

What suprised me that was that they said the OK BMI is the range 18.5-25, I'm sure it used to be 20-25. Also, it says you should aim to be as close to the bottom of the range as possible, as risk increases as you approach 25, suggesting in fact 25 is outside the OK range.

Well, I'm having none of it. I smoke, drink heavily, am fat, very stressed, and I'm fit as a fiddle. I'll take the risk.

bigmouthstrikesagain · 31/10/2007 19:38

A friend of mine had bowel cancer in her mid-twenties as a fit healthy, vegetarian woman - the docs took a dangerously long time making the correct diagnosis as she was so unlike the av bowel cabncer patient (middle aged man, meat eater). She has recovered and has since run a few marathons but it was such a shock.

Imo your genes are still the most relevant factor in decidig your risk factors - and the longer you live the more likely some form of cancer may affect you.

It is obv that being overweight and having a poor diet high in meat and fats is going to be bad for your health. But sometimes no matter what precautions you take you cannot escape your family history

Upwind · 31/10/2007 19:43

Thankfully cancer seems rare in young or even middle aged people. We will all die of something so I refuse to concern myself with my health in fifty years.

There are too many things that might kill me off first

kookaburra · 31/10/2007 20:02

Interestingly there was a report recently that there is a negliglble incidence of Multiple Sclerosis among those who religion forbids pork and pork derivatives (presuambly Islam & Judaism?) and some evidence that chemiclas in pork could cause an inflammatory reaction in the protective layer around the nrerves (pls forgive lack of anatomical knowledge

Original poster
northender · 31/10/2007 20:18

I think there's a very real danger that people are getting/will get sick of all these warnings about the dangers within the food and drink we consume and actually end up ignoring all warnings, even those with good science to back them up.

OP posts:
DANCESwithHughJackman · 31/10/2007 20:24

Minum

DANCESwithHughJackman · 31/10/2007 20:26

I agree Northender. It is alarming to read these things . My dc never eat bacon but they eat ham quite regularly, now I feel I may have done the wrong thing but then again it is one of the only meats that ds will eat and he should be getting protein in his diet (he is a very fussy eater at the moment) I just can't win...