Processed Meat and Premature Death

2013-06-18 14:43:04

A quick, easy and often tasty choice, processed meat including sausage, bacon, deli meats and hot dogs are consumed on a regular basis in many households. Most people realize these are perhaps not the healthiest options but continue to consume them.A recent study might prompt some to rethink this choice. Published just this March in the BMC Medicine, scientists followed 500,000 Europeans across ten countries and found a significant link between those consuming processed meats and risk of premature death from cancer and heart disease.⁽¹⁾ The study also found that those who ate more processed meat also tended to consume a generally unhealthy diet low in fruits and vegetables as well as participated in unhealthy lifestyle choices such as smoking. What these finding do is add merit to past studies that have found links between processed meat and health concerns such as increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease as well as pancreatic and colorectal cancer. From the high sodium content, unhealthy saturated fats and cholesterol, to the nitrates and other chemical preservatives, these foods shouldn’t be consumed often. Researchers suggest that if processed meat consumption was less than 20g/day, deaths could be reduced by 3.3%. That being said you can see that reserving that bacon for weekends may be in your best interest!