You’ve probably read the headlines, processed meat is a ‘definitive cause’ of cancer and red meat is a ‘probable’ cause. Before you go in a collective sigh of exasperation, and conclude, ‘everything you love causes cancer’, get the basics covered.
For every 50 grams of processed meat, the risk of colorectal cancer increases by 18%. The World Health Organisation reached this result after 22 scientists from the International Agency for Research on Cancer evaluated more than 800 studies from various countries.
Though this is not totally ground breaking, it has been known since long that processed meats are high in sodium and fatty acids - but exactly how is processed meat causing cancer is still not clear, the report published in medical journal The Lancet, has fleshed out three hypothesis: