Sausages... Do you feed them to your kids?!

[DGGR]

Sounds silly I know...
But after seeing processed red meat as a class 1 carcinogen (Who grading) I keep feeling so guilty every time my son eats them. But they're his favourite food!
I've stopped buying them in the regular shop because I know he has them at school and with grandparents so he eats them at least once a week.
I follow some 'health influencers' who don't agree with it based on 'healthy' countries like Spain also consuming a lot of red processed meat.
But it's in my kids school dinner menu, along with ham. And all parents I know seem to feed it to their kids regularly. So I was wondering what others thought based on the fact its potentially really unhealthy.

Thanks

My kids told nursery they weren't hungry because the sausages they tried to feed them tasted very bad. When we got in the car, the DCs begged me to feed them something decent at home instead. I try to be mindful of what I give them. DC9 asked for a salad for lunch tomorrow i had to hide my excitement about his own food choices.

The best meat I ever tasted was from an organic farm (Riverside). I might actually start that back up. The kids went mad for it. I'm that parent that always puts veg in from of them, no matter what. I understand where OP is coming from.

*Riverford sorry. I can't edit on my phone.

Mine get a good quality sausage (no preservatives etc, higher welfare meat) probably once or twice a month but autistic DC will eat no other processed meat so I pick my battles.

You do know that it is actually meat products that are full of faecal bacteria and even faecal matter don't you? So its you who are literally eating "shit food" enjoy!

One of my children has about 7 foods total that she will reliably eat so yes she still gets sausages. Her diet is awful I will hold my hands up to that but she will literally starve herself rather than eat something that she doesn't want to so the rubbish processed food is better than nothing. Her big sister eats a lovely balanced diet though so at least I'm only half failing in parenting I guess 🤦‍♀️ there is always going to be something to feel guilty about.

My son is so fussy if I worried too much about only giving him healthy food he won't eat at all.

My older two eat a lively balanced diet so I am confident it is not my parenting skills and rather more to do with his additional needs.

We have sausages a couple of times a week. Generally the Waitrose free range ones with natural casing etc.

I’m fussy about nitrates. Waitrose sell at least 3 varieties of chorizo that don’t have any and M&S at least one. The kids eat it a a lot. I buy Parma ham as that is just pork and salt. I don’t like veggie sausages - too much processing and seed oils.

English sausages do not contain nitrates. In fact they are minced pork, so not actually 'processed' as such.

My kids are adults now and amazingly healthy considering they ate all sorts of shite parents worry about now.

I hate sausages with a high meat content - give me Richmonds any day....I must have a peasant palate!

I thought pork/sausages were classed as red meat and not processed so you'd have them in moderation but it's not massively worrying.

Sadly our shite diets 2ont hit us until our 50s generally speaking. And this sort of anecdotal evidence is as about as useful as my dad who is nearly 80 saying smoking isn't that bad....

I try to make sure we only have ham,gammon,bacon, sausages, beige food and burgers occasionally. Let’s say we have one of those things twice a month. We have eaten more of them in the past but always knew they weren’t the best. I am now trying to eat a minimal amount of upf in general as well.
The one weak point in our house is supermarket pizza which we do have once a week but the rest of our main meals are homemade healthy full of veg.
It shouldn’t be news to anyone that the foods listed as class one carcinogens are not the best things to feed our families. What people do with that news is up to them.

Chicken sausages?

Love sausages. And mash with peas and gravy. One a week or more like once a fortnight. Can't grasp the anguish.

I stopped buying processed meat 10 years ago. Before that yes I fed them sausages, ham and bacon. They were 9 &7 when I stopped. Dd became veggi soon after DH became veggi in 2020. I only eat meat out. DS still eats meat but nothing processed.

Can't grasp the anguish.

people are concerned about getting cancer as it’s a strong link to bowel cancer which is unpleasant

Has anyone any studies? Surely if sausage, salami, cured meats are that deadly there would be increased rates of bowel cancer in Eastern Europe/Italy where people eat these foods regularly? Not trying to be obtuse, I am thinking bowel cancer up due to obesity and sedentary lifestyle rather than the sausages we eat.

Go to a butcher and try their sausages. Ask them how it is made (they may even show your son if they're making them at the time, my butchers often has a couple of kids invited to watch) Should only contain meat, a little rusk to bind together and herbs/spices. None of your shop-bought (this is Tescos) other ingredients
INGREDIENTS: Pork (85%), Water, Rice Flour, Salt, Black Pepper, Acidity Regulator (Calcium Lactate), Sage, White Pepper, Stabilisers (Tetrasodium Diphosphate, Disodium Diphosphate), Dextrose, Bamboo Fibre, Mace, Preservative (Sodium Metabisulphite), Parsley, Caramelised Sugar Syrup, Colour (Paprika Extract).

Does anyone know if bowel cancer rates particularly high in Germany?

Yes. Eastern European rates are high in general. And Denmark (presumably it's the bacon). And Japan (no idea).
https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.3322/caac.20038
https://www.wcrf.org/cancer-trends/colorectal-cancer-statistics/
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langas/article/PIIS2468-1253(19)30345-0/fulltext
The Northern European/US diet seems to be generally dangerous for bowel cancer.

Naked sausages and bacon don’t contain nitrites/traces of that helps.

That is so interesting. I wonder why Italy, France and the US aren’t in there.

Or Germany. I’ve never seen as many sausages and I don’t buy bratswurst etc as the ones I see in the UK always have nitrates listed in the ingredients

The three different links I posted all have slightly different lists: that sort of global incidence data is a sod to compare. Italy is high up one of the lists, as is Germany.

My poor DF died of bowel cancer. He was a short, slim teetotaller who used to chomp through his body weight in apples and probably never ate a slice of chorizo in his life. He did have ulcerative colitis though and it wasn’t really monitored.