Here's why you shouldn't panic & stop eating processed meat altogether

Long story short: Eat everything in moderation.

Jonathan Lim| October 27, 04:19 PM

Your Facebook feed today (Oct. 27) is probably filled with news articles on the recent World Health Organisation's (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) report that said processed meats causes cancer and red meat has some probable link to causing cancer.

News reports have focused on the classifying of processed meats as a Group 1 "carcinogenic to humans" agent while red meat is a Group 2 "probably carcinogenic to humans" agent.

Is this the end of your meat-loving days? Should you throw away the cans of luncheon meat in your zombie fallout survival kit? Before you do that, we help you make sense of the findings:

 

1. The 18 percent increased risk of colorectal cancer

The IARC report states that for every 50-gram portion of processed meat eaten daily, it increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18 percent.

Even though 18 per cent sounds like a big number, context is what you need, not big numbers.

According to the Singapore Cancer Society, the incidence of colorectal cancer in Singapore is 1 in 50, or 20 cases for every 1,000 Singaporeans.

Therefore, for every 1,000 processed-meat-loving-Singaporeans there is a chance that there will be 23.6 cases of colorectal cancer among them as compared to 20 cases for every 1,000 Singaporeans with regular diets.

So if you love your processed meats, the chances of you getting colorectal cancer is 2.36 percent instead of 2 percent.

Should you be concerned? Yes. But there is no need to panic? Depends on how much of a gambler you are with your health.

 

2. The conclusiveness of the report

The IARC report is based on observational studies. That is to say, they did not conduct experiments in controlled conditions to study whether there is a direct link between eating processed meats and cancer.

The study was based on observing patterns from existing research and making conclusions based off them. That is to say, they observed some patterns linking increased occurrences of colorectal cancer among people with higher intakes of processed meat, but it may not account for other external factors which may affect these patterns.

A simple way to put it is that I observe that all people who have cancer tend to drink water and breathe air, thus I conclude that drinking water and breathing air has in some way caused cancer among people. But I'm not accounting for their lifestyle choices, their diet, as well as other factors in their environment. This is what critics could say for the IARC report as well.

 

3. The comparison of processed meats with other Group 1 agents like Tobacco

The immediate knee-jerk reaction people may have with this association is that eating bacon is suddenly as unhealthy as smoking.

group 1 Composition screen shot from IARC

But before you panic again, here are some other things that belong to Group 1 agents:

Are all these listed as harmful as smoking? The answer is actually the level of exposure.

Take ultraviolet radiation for example: If you think it is harmful, you should never ever step out of the house, and you would also smother yourself with sunblock lotion even indoors.

But we all know sunshine (the main source of ultraviolet radiation) is not harmful, unless you want to panggang yourself at the beach for 12 hours straight.

The same applies for alcoholic beverages, if you binge-drink it, you'll probably die from liver poisoning faster than any cancer can grow. On the other hand, drinking red wine in moderation has been linked to health benefits.

The point is, processed meats, in moderation is still a doable lifestyle choice.

This applies similarly for red meats which has been classified as a Group 2A agent. Here are some other things that belong to Group 2A: shift-work that disrupts sleep cycles, frying (yes frying stuff from a pan at high temperatures), and being a hairdresser/barber.

As for smoking, it's bad, it's evil, and you're definitely at risk of being killed by people around you suffering from second-hand smoke.

 

Top photo from Wikipedia

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