Bacon can kill: Official

Re: To which I say....

Complete baloney

Saying "Processed meat" causes cancer* is about as specific as saying "ceiling insulation" causes cancer. What we need to know is, what exactly in "Processed meat" is causing it? Is it the preservatives, nitrites, acidity regulators, colour regulators or any of that other 'E-number' crap? Or is it also applicable to something like, say, Parma Ham (only 2 ingredients, pork+salt) ??

If it's applicable to all processed meat (and this applies also to the "red meat" overly-broad category), what's the difference in cancer-causing rates between organic grass-fed free ranging cows and farmed pigs or chickens force-fed with swill and antibiotics in cages so small they can't turn around in?

*actually, a slightly higher risk of cancer, but the correct terminology won't sell papers and page views, will it?

Re: To which I say....

You foisted margarine

Margarine wasn't created for health benefits. It was created "for the armed forces and lower classes" as a substitute for butter [Wikipedia]. I don't think that anyone ever claimed it was healthy.

I thought everything caused cancer?

Surely the more positive thing the WHO could be focusing on is finding out what things help reduce the risk of cancer right?

And also, someone who eats a lot of bacon, probably is not eating enough fruit, veg & pulses (beans)...

Re: Website Down

Only Dr. Onco Bacon, formerly at NASA, had any sort of explanation...

Mind you

I saw a huge improvement in my general health when I stopped smoking over 10 years ago - every cold would become like flu. Now I barely even notice a cold. Mind you every smoker knows it's very bad for them, it's pretty self-evident after all.

I doubt I would see such an improvement from de-baconing though.

Re: Risk assessment...

> That's 18% of about 4.5% or your chances of getting colorectal cancer goes from 4.5% to 5.3%, which doesn't sound so scary.

So, unless I've made a mistake in my (compound) maths, based on those figures, I think you'd need to eat a 1kg of bacon each day to have a 100% chance of getting colorectal cancer.

I'm not sure what timespan that risk is spread over, but I can't help wondering if the bigger risk wouldn't be from a heart attack, based on that diet.

Re: Risk assessment...

+1

Our decisions shouldn't be based on fear, but on asking if the benefit is worth the risk.

From the (little) I know of cancer, it's clear to me that it is basically a risk of aging - if you live long enough, then your body is exposed to enough of (X) that it starts being a health risk. It matters a little what (X) is, since for some substances the treshold is higher or lower, but the bottom line is that the older you get, the higher the risk. whatever your lifestyle is like.

Also, 50g a day... I eat plenty of bacon, salami, ham etc and even then it's probably still less than 50g/day.

Re: Risk assessment...

In other words, if you take 1000 people who eat a bacon sarnie every day and 1000 who don't, 947 of the porkies won't get bum cancer, while 955 of the porkless won't get bum cancer. Most people won't get bum cancer, but an extra seven in the porky group do. So your odds of giving yourself bum cancer through eating bacon is 947:7, or 135:1

I think I'll carry on with my weekly fry up.

(But wait until,,, what about binge porking?)

Re: Risk assessment...

"That's 18% of about 4.5% or your chances of getting colorectal cancer goes from 4.5% to 5.3%, which doesn't sound so scary."

Wrong way round, no? The lifetime risk of colorectal cancer, blending in all risk factors including drinking, smoking, bacon munching and salad dodging is 4.5% (4.8% in some sources). So by not eating bacon your idealised risk drops from 4.5% to 3.7%-ish.

Or perhaps the figures have had the magic wand treatment, so that 4.1% ± 0.4% is interpreted as an 18% reduction in risk, instead of a 9% reduction with 50% uncertainty?

Re: Agenda 21

> Read as much as you can about agenda 21.

No links? I guess the document itself (1MB PDF) might be a good place to start.

Re: Group 1

"There's just as much chance of getting cancer from bacon as there is from cigarettes?"

No, you misunderstand the grouping system used. The groups are based on the level of certainty of the evidence, not the risk. The WHO think the evidence is very strong so it goes in the same group as tobacco and cancer.

Re: Group 1

No, going without bacon only makes it FEEL like you've lived to 100.

Truth is you'll probably check out at 65 because the kind of anxiety that worries about these sorts of things reduces your life span even more than cigarettes do.

Re: You Don't Win Friends With Salad

Eating salad every day instead of proper food doesn't actually make you live any longer, it just feels like it.