Red and processed meat are now put under intense scrutiny as The World Health Organization (WHO) announced its experts declaring that the said food raises risks of having colon and stomach cancer.
On Monday, experts from the UN agency that eating processed meat will definitely lead to bowel cancer in humans, raising further debate over the benefits of a meat-based diet.
The France-based International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an agency which is part of the WHO, was the agency which made the announcement and put hot dogs, bacon, ham and other such processed meat in its group 1 list. The list, which provides a list of foods linked to cancer, already includes tobacco, asbestos and diesel fumes, of which there is "sufficient evidence," according to Yahoo Food.
"For an individual, the risk of developing colorectal (bowel) cancer because of their consumption of processed meat remains small, but this risk increases with the amount of meat consumed," according to IARC's Dr. Kurt Straif in a statement.
According to the IARC, red meat, which includes beef, lamb and pork, has also been classified as "a "probable" carcinogen" in its group 2A list, of which also contains glyphosate, the active ingredient in numerous weedkillers.
There is however "limited evidence" of cancer-causing links with red meat provided by the agency. Mainly, the IARC has discovered links with bowel cancer, and associations with pancreatic and prostate cancer.
The findings came following a meeting in France this month consisting of health experts. According to these experts, an estimated amount of 50 gram portion of processed meat consumed daily will increase the risk of colorectal cancer by up to 18 percent.
While some countries have warned consumers to limit red and processed meat in their diets, according to the IARC, their advice were focused on heart disease and obesity.
The IARC has also cited an estimate from the Global Burden of Disease Project (which is composed of 1,000 international researchers) that 34,000 deaths by cancer per year around the world are due to high amounts of processed meat consumption.
If confirmed, this means that 50,000 deaths per year worldwide is due to red and processed meat, according to the Global Burden of Disease Project.
The panel that drafted the WHO findings reportedly reviewed animal experiments, studies of human diet and health, and cell processes explaining red meat causing cancer.
However, the panel decision was not unanimous, and red and processed meat being a common food among Americans, with the U.S. beef industry consisting $95 billion in the market, the issue is bound to be controversial, according to The Washington Post.
Independent experts are stresseing that the new findings by the WHO findings should be kept in perspective, according to The Associated Press.
"Three cigarettes per day increases the risk of lung cancer sixfold, or 500 percent, compared with the 18 percent from eating a couple slices of bologna a day," said food nutrition scientist Gunter Kuhnle at the University of Reading. "This is still very relevant from a public health point of view, as there are more than 30,000 new cases per year" of colon cancer, he said. "But it should not be used for scaremongering."
