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Meat and cancer

D

Diabetes.PCOS

Active Member
Messages
26
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Is it okay to eat a lot of processed meat and ham?
I know it is okay about diabetes and blood glucose but what about the risk of cancer?
 
I suppose less processed would be better if possible: processed meat and ham often has quite a lot of starch and dextrose too.
That said, I'd take ham over the 'healthy' lentils, oatmeal, apples, brown rice etc they would probably advise you to eat instead: I think quite a lot of the suspicion over processed meats comes from the same mindsets that tell you to avoid red meat, eggs and butter. There are issues like excessive sodium in some processed meats that you should be aware of, and I think 'a lot' of anything might be inadvisable, but I've found processed meat very useful in controlling my blood levels.
The cancer stories I've seen tend to be Daily Mail type things which bellow ' raises cancer risk 15%', but neglect to point out that 15% of a negligible base is not necessarily as dramatic as they wish to portray.
 
Diabetes.PCOS said:
Is it okay to eat a lot of processed meat and ham?
I know it is okay about diabetes and blood glucose but what about the risk of cancer?
Click to expand...
I find ‘ quality ‘ processed meats usable. I have organic turkey and chicken deli meat. And grass fed roast beef. The only other ingredient is sea salt and I do tend to rinse them. Why? I have no idea lol

I also occasionally eat grass fed hot dogs and spicy chicken sausages both with zero carbs and spices being the only other ingred.
 
I also occasionally eat grass fed hot dogs and spicy chicken sausages both with zero carbs and spices being the only other ingred.[/QUOTE]
I now can't get the picture of hot dogs and chicken sausages roaming freely in a field and grazing on grass out of my head .........
 
Those dogs look a bit hot to me.......
 
https://www.cancer.org/latest-news/world-health-organization-says-processed-meat-causes-cancer.html

"Overall, the lifetime risk of someone developing colon cancer is 5%. To put the numbers into perspective, the increased risk from eating the amount of processed meat in the study would raise average lifetime risk to almost 6%."

So there is a 94% chance that you will be O.K. if you have bacon and sausages for breakfast.

If I was feeling more inspired I might look up what is more likely to kill you (according to statisticians paid to give an opinion).

#1 cause is shortness of breath.

Edit: also, you would have to eat this every day for the results to be valid. So if you don't have processed meats every day you seem to be in with a chance. The summary didn't say where they found the cohort which never ate processed meat, to use as a baseline against increased risk.

Edit 2: Just noticed this is for the USA, so the strictures on red meat may be tilted a bit by what they feed to livestock to make them grow faster.
 
I think all the added ingredients and chemicals that we can’t pronounce are what makes them unhealthy. I am fortunate to find good clean deli slices which can be a major convenience as everything else about Diabetes is convenient lol.
I don’t eat a lot of food in general so the slightly higher price tag is ok with me.
 
A friend of mine died at 38 of colon cancer he didn't eat meat excessively processed or otherwise but he did drink an awful lot of beer.
 
I am now 71 years old & in 2006 was diagnosed with Cancer of the Colon & Head of the pancreas. Was admitted to hospital & under went a 13hour operation followed by chemotherapy in 2007. I have been totally clear of Cancer since but then got diagnosed with T2 in Sept 2015.
There is a big survival rate in cancer these days which it appears not to be mentioned when anything gets into the press.
 
This blog from Cancer Research UK explains it quite well:-

We know that, out of every 1000 people in the UK, about 61 will develop bowel cancer at some point in their lives. Those who eat the lowest amount of processed meat are likely to have a lower lifetime risk than the rest of the population (about 56 cases per 1000 low meat-eaters).

If this is correct, the WCRF’s analysis suggests that, among 1000 people who eat the most processed meat, you’d expect 66 to develop bowel cancer at some point in their lives – 10 more than the group who eat the least processed meat.
http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2015/10/26/processed-meat-and-cancer-what-you-need-to-know/​
 
I eat what I can afford and tend to let the statisticians just get on with it.
 
Something which my family tend to do is to boil bacon before frying it - just put the rashers into the pan and cover with hot water from the kettle, simmer for a minute, sieve out and go on as normal - it is a great help now that I keep the bacon in the freezer, but it does remove some of the salt and presumably the preservatives. Bowel cancer is not something which has been seen in my extended family. It is actually a rarity - We do joke that if we wanted to have a funeral in the family we'd have to kill someone first, as we don't die off all that often. We had to wait for the rich uncle to reach 94years old before we got the inheritance......
 

Doesn't that make it statistically insignificant?
I have read a thorough debunking of the WHO "processed meats cause cancer" statement but can't seem to find it.

Might have been this one..

https://chriskresser.com/red-meat-cancer-again-will-it-ever-stop/
 
The results are described as 'statistically significant' which means that the difference is not due to chance, it doesn't say anything about how important that difference is. If you like processed meats, you might decide that the increased risk of bowel cancer is small i.e. not 'significant' (in the colloquial use of the word) enough to stop eating them.

In the article you linked to, the author seem to be trying to ridicule the WHO for putting processed meat and smoking in the same category of carcinogen when he says, "the association between red meat and cancer is not strong (i.e. comparing bacon to cigarettes is absurd)". However, the classification just tells us how reliable the evidence is, it doesn't tell us anything about the size of the effect.The WHO explain this in their Q and As.

Processed meat was classified as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1). Tobacco smoking and asbestos are also both classified as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1). Does it mean that consumption of processed meat is as carcinogenic as tobacco smoking and asbestos?
No, processed meat has been classified in the same category as causes of cancer such as tobacco smoking and asbestos (IARC Group 1, carcinogenic to humans), but this does NOT mean that they are all equally dangerous. The IARC classifications describe the strength of the scientific evidence about an agent being a cause of cancer, rather than assessing the level of risk.
http://www.who.int/features/qa/cancer-red-meat/en/
​
 
My brother was a doctor and back I the late 60s he told me that if he stopped eating everything that was supposed to cause cancer he would starve to death, as an example he quoted that that day he received info that Tomatoes caused cancer my advice is ignore it until more evidence is available. Just eat in moderation
 
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