The food alarmists are at it again and today they've targeted your delicious cold cut sandwich.
Drudge runs a headline "Processed Meat Early Death Link" with a link to a BBC story filled with standard alarmist dreck.
Sausages, ham, bacon and other processed meats appear to increase the risk of dying young, a study of half a million people across Europe suggests.
It concluded diets high in processed meats were linked to cardiovascular disease, cancer and early deaths.
The researchers, writing in the journal BMC Medicine, said salt and chemicals used to preserve the meat may damage health.
Luckily, for the occasional sandwich eater, the researchers also found that "…people who ate a lot of processed meat were also more likely to smoke, be obese and have other behaviors known to damage health."
Okay, super. So, really the study concluded that if you're unhealthy, you'll die. Great. Got it. News to me. Thanks.
Of course, the BBC report says that the researchers accounted for those risk factors but found that processed meat still damaged health. So, how much of this processed meat does one need to ingest for it to damage health?
…those eating more than 160g of processed meat a day – roughly two sausages and a slice of bacon – were 44% more likely to die over a typical follow-up time of 12.7 years than those eating about 20g.
Uh huh…so, eating sausage and bacon every day of your life might cause you to die earlier than those who didn't indulge in a bacony breakfast?
Shocking!
Yet again, we have a scientific study that purports to prove things that most people consider common sense. If you eat bacon and sausage every day, if you are obese, if you smoke or practice other behaviors "known to damage health"…you'll DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH and die earlier than the salad eaters.
Now, enjoy that occasional baloney sandwich…just don't make baloney the backbone of your diet.