How to eat bacon without killing yourself
A new medical study finds that limiting processed meat intake to less than an ounce a day cuts the risk of cancer and early death.
Twenty grams. That's 0.7 ounces here in the U.S. and, as Gawker points out, translates to a strip of bacon, a small sausage, a thin slice of ham or 20% of a hamburger. It's also how much processed meat the typical person can eat a day without increasing the risk of developing cancer and dying early.That's not exactly a fun fact for the world's omnivores, but then again the world isn't a very fun place for meat eaters these days.
Nor it likely to cheer up McDonald's (MCD) and other fast-food chains or packaged-food companies like Kraft (KRFT) or Hormel (HRL) that count on an eager market for processed meats.
And meat is a particularly touchy subject now in Europe. After all, horse meat has appeared in Burger King (BKW) hamburgers, Wal-Mart (WMT) bolognese, Ikea sausage and meatballs and other supposedly beefy dishes from Nestlé (NSRGY) and others.
A new study from the University of Zurich published in the journal BMC Medicine found that people who eat large amounts of processed meats, such as bacon, sausage and hamburger, are 72% more likely to die from heart disease, 11% more likely to die from cancer and 44% more likely to die prematurely in general. If those same folks can cut their consumption to 0.7 ounces of meat a day, researchers say it should prevent 3% of all premature deaths.
They're not advising that folks cut red meat out of their diet altogether because it does contain important minerals and nutrients. But this latest study backs up a similar one by the World Cancer Research Fund in 2007 that found consumption of bacon, ham, hot dogs, salami and some sausages heightened the risk of bowel cancer. That group advised meat eaters to restrict their processed meat intake to 10 grams a day.
As The Guardian points out, however, that particular study elicited pained howls from the meat industry, which said the mean cancer research folks were picking on them by surveying only 4,100 people in Britain.
Well, the new study surveyed nearly 500,000 people in 10 European countries. While this is certainly tougher to swallow for Great Britain, where The Express and Olive Magazine report that the bacon sandwich is the No. 1 snack, it's not as if the country has had a problem shying away from processed meat of late. According to market research firm Kantar, frozen hamburger sales in the U.K. have dropped 43% since the horse meat scandal broke.
When I think processed meat, I think packaged deli slices. Rarely d I think bacon. I'll take the risk. My grandparents have been eating bacon since the dinosaurs roamed the earth, and they are almost 90, and almost 80 respectively. And besides problems from smoking and general age related wear, they are the picture of health.
They drank from glass bottles, plastic bottles, aluminum cans, they ate veggies right off of the vine, Didn't exercise every day of their life, and are healthy. I think I'll eat like my grandparents, not like the "science" says I should.
I SAID GOOD DAY SIR.
Reminds me of the neighborhood doctor who told an 87 year old woman to stop smoking. I asked him if it would add another 10 minutes to her life? Finally i bought her a bottle of blackberry brandy and told her to continue to smoke her three Carlton cigarettes a day. She lived until she was 96. Some of these articles lack common sense.
My maternal grandfather was a country butcher specializing in veal. But he did do some slaughtering of pigs. My mother use to tell be that in the 1930's you couldn't give bacon away, not even to the poor people during the depression. No one wanted it.
And turkey was a great delicacy. Unlike today, there were no massive turkey farms. My grandmother would try to raise turkeys, starting out with nine or ten. She was lucky if she would have two come to maturity. You see, if the turkeys experienced a chill or got cold, they would huddle so closely together, they would suffocate themselves....Guess that's where the saying "dumb as a turkey" comes from. HAHAHAHA
Kind of an "old wive's tale" about Turkeys drowning themselves in a rainstorm...Maybe ??
And little baby ducks and geese with their downy feathers...Float pretty well.
Kinda like abobber..
But I'm sure there are a few exceptions? On Turkeys and ducks.
Yeah Turkeys (domestic) really aren't too bright...And they can suffocate themselves if too crowded, die if get chilled and strange birds to raise...Wild ones are almost entirely opposite..
We have and neighbors raised all above, with Wild ones in our woods and fields around here.
They focus on the process meats but don't talk about the chemicals in the process meats being the problem. Fact more soldiers died in World War I from food poisoning then from combat. Cancer is a slow death but food poisoning takes your life much quicker. So if the government is so concerned about our health change the laws for food processing. Oh wait that would make them responsible and in politics doing nothing is less risky than actually doing their job.
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