Can eating processed meats daily give you colon cancer? UK surgeon explains the link between the two
Hindustan Times • • health
Key Points:
- Eating 50 grams of processed meat daily, roughly two slices of bacon, increases the relative risk of bowel cancer by 18%, raising the lifetime chance from 6% to about 7%.
- In comparison, smoking increases lung cancer risk by around 2,000%, with approximately one million cancer deaths annually linked to smoking versus 34,000 deaths linked to high processed meat intake.
- Processed meats also contain high levels of salt and saturated fat, which negatively impact blood pressure, heart disease risk, and the gut microbiome, a factor in multiple diseases.
- The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies processed meat alongside other carcinogens like alcohol and asbestos based on evidence strength, but this classification does not indicate equal levels of risk.
