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

[northender]

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

exactly Fio
it's all about trying to lessen your percentage risk...but you could follow all the advice to the letter and still get some form of cancer.

Everything in Moderation.
Exepcially Greggs sausage rolls - personally I love 'em .

I posted here last night but it must have got lost in the black hole when MN crashed.

The gist was that I probably drink too much and eat lots of bacon but I also eat plenty of fruit, exercise more than the average person and eat little red meat. So my view is have a bit of what you fancy, so to speak, but do something extra to counteract the effects And be happy!

Ditto saggarmaker. I love food...all types. It's a huge pleasure. And so is running. So I hope that things cancel each other out. Doing OK so far.

BTW I found out what a saggarmakersbottomknocker is the other day. Thanks to the Tweenies.

On a more serius note, I had a friend who didn't smoke, didn't drink a great deal, was a vegetarian, went to the gym 3 times a week.
She contracted bowel cancer when she was 18 and had to have part of her bowel removed. % years later she had several tumours removed from her lungs. Last year a tumour was found deep in her brain. Chemo was able to shrink it somewhat but surgery was not an option as it was buried to deep. Sadly she lost her fight for life in the Spring. She was 28 years old .
I can't figure it out - I've no people who have had the most unhealthy lifestyles and yet live to their 80's, and yet someone young who took care of themselves dies an early death due to cancer.

Bouncingturtle-I think it's fairly likely your friend inherited a genetic mutation predisposing her to cancer-that's a extremely young age to get bowel cancer. Very sad.

Did a quick google on nitrates issue and ended up on Soil Association site.

Nitrates are used in organic food production too, and it's in the curing process, not the packaging process, so avoiding supermarket meat doesn't help.

Cooking at high temperatures (frying bacon) may have higher risks.

However the link between nitrates and cancer is unproven and contradictory: vegetables have far higher nitrate levels but vegetarians are less likely to get (stomach) cancer.

Salt is a much more important factor they think.

Confused anyone? looks like the veggies can be smug, however

I firmly believe that a a lot of cancer is caused by stress and worry, including worrying about getting cancer.

However, whilst I really don't think there is a need to completely eliminate things form your life (well, apart from crack cocaine and intravenous drugs perhaps) it does make sense reducing consumption of things that are blatantly not terribly healthy and upping the stuff that is good for you (as Catissleepy said).

In the end it's not about whether you die or not - we all have to die someday - but your quality of life later on. If you're obese or smoke a lot it's more than likely that your quality of life is going to be pretty crap at some point and will in all probability also adversely affect the quality of life of who has to care for you.

amidaiwish, I have similar family genes predisposing me to that kind of cancer and have regular tests. Ask your doctor if he can refer you. They're not nice but they really put my mind at rest.

thanks eliza2 - i will do that. is my family history "enough" do you think?

From what I gathered from the reports, the key thing is that yes, food is bad for you - too much of it anyway. The evidence is that being slim makes you live longer and, importantly, have a better quality of life - more energy, better skin, etc. Ergo the weird CRON diets (calorie reducing optimal nutrition) diets. I read somewhere the optimal weight to be was the weight you were at 20 (assuming you were not morbidly obese then). The salt thing - I think that in places like Japan where diet is generally healthier they do suffer high rates of bowel/stomach cancer because their diet is high in salt. I'm a bit worried - if I eliminate ham, bacon and sausages from my kids' diet I'm not sure what will replace it! They eat at least one of these a day - probably because I follow the path of least resistance (on the plus side, they love salmon!).

I just think it is all aload of nonsense.
2 x slices of bacon = 0.5, so you would have to eat 4 slices 2-3 times a week.
Do I ?
No
I have a bit of bacon or /and a ham sandwich once or twice a week.
This is only a concern for people who eat a HUGE amount of red meet, processed - meat - ham and bacon.
Talk about scaremongering.
The blokes at the sandwich van were saying - no more blt's for me.
Look what effect this kind of nonsense has.

Might depend on your individual GP but I'd flag it up next time you see your doc.

i think that as soon as a food becomes very processed we should realise that we are taking a risk healthwise eg cheap ham/bacon/sausages, anything that is very longlife etc