Bacon is bad …. again…

A recent study shows that bacon is bad, again!
But this is another example of a very poor science done by doctors.
But poor, I mean it was very bad. Actually, it should have never been
published.
This study wanted to know if bacon or processed meats were associated
with cancer. In other words, they wanted to know if these foods would
cause cancer.
But the interesting part is that the authors did not consider anything about
sugar! Yes, you heard it well! If you study cancer and nutrition, you need to
consider sugar as a causative factor, because we know that sugar drives
inflammation and therefore cancer. But the authors just plainly ignored this
“food”.
This study was done using food questionnaires over a period of years.
Basically, the way it works is that the participants filled out a food
questionnaire for a week at the beginning of the study. They would write
down everything they eat and drink. Then, about 10 years later, they filled
out the same questionnaire again.
Then, the scientists look at the diet before and after and see the rates of a
variety of ailments. In this case, they focused on cancer. They wanted to
see if some foods, meats, would be associated with cancer.
The confusing part is that all meals containing meat was classified as “red
meat”. For example, if you eat a burger, this food was classified in the meat
category even though it had bread. Same thing with pizzas. If it had
pepperoni, it was classified in “red meat”. They did the same with hot dog
(with buns), tortillas, enchiladas, sandwiches, etc.
You can see the pattern here. Most processed foods fell into the meat
category.
By classifying those different foods with specific ailments, they determined
that bacon or processed meats was increasing the risk of colon cancer by
20%.

But HOW do they know that meat was actually causing cancer? What
about wheat? Sugar? Trans fats? Vegetable oil? Preservatives?
Chemicals? All those are components of processed foods. But no word on
this major confounding factor…
The biggest head scratcher: red meat was actually protective in women!
Why didn’t they highlight the fact that in women, eating red meat was
associated with a lower risk of colon cancer? Not a single word on this
finding…
And in the end, the increased risk was a relative risk. It wasn’t a 20%
absolute increase in risk. It was a relative increase in risk. The subjects
started with a 0.5% risk of getting bowel cancer. In those who ate the most
processed meat and red meat, that risk increased 20%—to 0.6%!
From 0.5 to 0.6%. Sure, that’s an increase, but is it something to overhaul
your entire diet for? To give up the best sources of zinc, iron, B vitamins,
protein, carnosine, creatine? All that for a measly 0.1% that hasn’t even
been established as causal.
In conclusion, this study was designed to prove that red meat, bacon,
processed meats are bad. They never considered sugar, trans fats,
vegetable fats, pesticides, etc. They never took into consideration the
quality of the meat, is it organic? Grass-fed? Pastured? GMO-free?
At the end of the day, bacon can be part of a healthy diet. Make sure it is
organic, sugar free,
Dr. Serge

thenutritionscientist

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