So that pork dish from Saturday night? Off limits. My Brother’s tasty chili accompanied by his own homemade hot sauce? Not going to happen. That leftover Indian dish I made last week? It’d be like I’m eating shards of glass.
All of this is the path you shall now take. For the World Health Organization (WHO) has decided that meat causes cancer.
Let’s leave aside for a moment that the WHO is tackling this urgent meat-flavored issue when they otherwise seem to have trouble executing their core mission.
Per the BBC:
Processed meats – such as bacon, sausages and ham – do cause cancer, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Its report said 50g of processed meat a day – less than two slices of bacon – increased the chance of developing colorectal cancer by 18%.
Meanwhile, it said red meats were “probably carcinogenic” but there was limited evidence
That’s kind of exact if you ask me. Exactly 50 grams of processed meat equals a 18% chance I commute to Valhalla? How could they possibly get so specific?
That’s like telling me a scientific study has proven that if I drive exactly 13 miles per hour over the speed limit my chances of a twisted metal death are increased by 14%. Would you believe such a stat? I wouldn’t.
And then they go ahead and say straight meat, non-processed variety, is “probably carcinogenic” but then admit they can’t prove it. Well, I say that listening to Justin Bieber is probably carcinogenic, but I can’t prove it. But just take my word for it, okay.
So I guess I’ll have to stop eating meat now? Because they said so?
Let me lay this out for a second. Every human who has consumed food, any food at all, has died. The fatality rate for the consumption of apples is 100%. Everybody who’s ever eaten a piece of fish will ultimately become a bleached skeleton. That’s science you can bet your soul on. It’s 100% guaranteed.
Just ask this guy. He hate some hummus in 69 BC, and look what happened to him:
So is this a license to dip your coffee in bacon fat each morning? Or drive down the road 34 miles over the limit while drunk and listening to Bieber at top volume? I mean, you could, I guess?
But no, not really. Common sense does apply. You don’t need the WHO to tell you that.
But I guess this pseudo-science really does bug me. Because it gives decent, legit science a bad name. And it could convince people to change their behavior for all the wrong reasons.
It’s your life. Live it.
As to me, so I guess I’ll have to stop eating meat now? No, not a chance. The leftovers to this excellent dish is what I’ll be eating tonight. It’s 100% guaranteed.
The Arcturus Project 
Hi!
Only accidentally I found this post and I laughed through whole! Your personal style is amazing! You are doing great job, keep going 😀
PS: I am vegetarian, so save anyway 😀
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As I understand it, it’s basically heating fat that makes meat carcinogenic. The browner or more burned the meat, the more carcinogenic it is. I don’t really care, because I’m a vegetarian, but in theory, you could eat raw meat and avoid the carcinogens that way. And even vegetarians like me should watch out for french fries and the like. As well, some foods, like spinach and tomatoes, improve by being cooked (to the point that they do a better job of helping you avoid cancer when they are cooked–it increases their lycopene content), so it’s not just cooking per se that leads to cancer (as many raw vegans would have you believe), but cooking particular types of foods. Anyway–you sound like you’re going to eat what you want, so, buen provecho!
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Good on both of you for being vegetarian and making a choice that you wanted. I have friends and family who do it and know it’s not easy.
I guess I go off the rails on this because with the tone of the WHO, and the way it’s being reported, it gets rather shovey. You see headlines questioning whether all of humanity must now become vegetarian, or die. Which I find amusing given the questionability of the report.
But primarily, life is about choice. Either way.
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