How many hot dogs are safe to eat? We tackle your questions on an expert panel’s conclusion that processed meats are carcinogenic.
There’s no doubt you have read last week’s headlines of red meat and processed meats being labeled by the World Health Association (WHO) as carcinogens. It’s enough to make meat lovers cry foul and a weary public tired of trying to make sense of what they should and maybe should not be eating. One week it’s food X we are told to eat more of while avoiding food Y. How is the average consumer, who simply wants to feed their family nutritious food, make sense out of sensationalistic headlines and understand how it applies to them?
Without going into a lot of detail, I’ll give you a brief synopsis of the report from the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO is classifying red meat as “probably carcinogenic to humans” and processed meat as “carcinogenic to humans.”
It’s important to understand the difference between red meat and processed meats. Red meat includes muscle meats such as beef, veal, pork, lamb and mutton. WHO has labeled them as probably carcinogenic based on limited evidence. This evidence was an association observed mainly for colorectal cancer, the third most prevalent cancer among men and women in the United States. Diets high in red meat have also been linked to pancreatic and prostate cancers.
Processed meats have been salted, cured, fermented, smoked or have had the addition of chemical preservatives to enhance their flavor or improve preservation. Examples of processed meat include bacon, salami, sausage, hot dogs, ham, corned beef, beef jerky, and processed deli or luncheon meat like bologna. WHO has labeled processed meats as a category 1 classification putting them in the same category of substances such as cigarettes, estrogen, ionizing radiation and diesel engine exhaust. It’s important to know these substances are not all equally considered at the same dangerous level of possibly causing cancer.
For example, the relative risk increase of developing cancer from cigarettes is 20x whereas the relative risk increase from processed meat is 1.1 to 1.2x – a much, much smaller risk than smoking.
When this report came out, I, like many dietitians, thought to ourselves, “this is not necessarily new news.” But before I address that, it’s necessary to put things into perspective.
Whenever reports like this come out, you have to ask yourself, how does this fit into a person’s overall lifestyle? Often the same people who consume a lot of red and processed meat may also have other lifestyle habits that are contributing to the possible development of cancers. Are they abstaining from smoking, exercising on a regular basis, eating at least 7 colorful fruits and vegetables daily, avoiding large portions sizes of food, and maintaining a healthy body weight? If the answer to the majority of these lifestyle habits is “no” then maybe the red and processed meats are not the primary bad guys after all. There is also the consideration of a person’s family history of cancer, their age and other genetic conditions. The complexity of cancer is vast and their development is often unknown.
As a dietitian, listed below is what I have counseled clients on and taught for years in my college courses concerning the consumption of red and processed meats. When you add in the healthy lifestyle factors mentioned in the above paragraph, you have a more common sense approach to decreasing your risk of cancer without having to completely eliminate red and processed meats:
Advice on red meat:
- Keep portion sizes of red meat between 3-4 ounces a serving. This is equivalent to the size of a deck of cards or about the same size and thickness of the palm of your hand.
- Choose lean cuts of red meat. These cuts have less fat and are excellent sources of protein, iron, zinc, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12. Choose meat with as little marbling as possible.
- Certain types of carcinogens can form when red meat including fish and poultry, are cooked using high-temperature methods, such as pan-frying or grilling directly over an open flame. These carcinogens are called heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) causing changes in DNA that may increase the risk of cancer
- Remove charred portions of meat before eating.
- Healthier methods of cooking red meat include sautéing, baking, roasting and broiling.
- Include other sources of protein foods throughout the week besides red meat. Keep red meat intake to no more than 2-3 times per week.
Advice on processed meat:
- Even though processed meat can be enjoyed on occasion, it is best to keep your intake of them to a minimum. Maybe a slice of bacon once a week and a hot dog a couple of times a month, in the context of an otherwise healthy diet, probably won’t undo your total eating pattern. But, if you have diabetes, heart disease or high cholesterol, processed meats should be avoided. To define what a minimum is, is up for debate but I would keep their intake as infrequent as possible.
Advice on other sources of protein foods:
- Mix up your sources of protein. Throughout the week vary animal sources of protein from red meat, fish and poultry to including plant sources such as beans, grains, nuts, seeds, lentils, peanut butter, and tofu. This helps you to get in a wider variety of nutrients from different foods and eliminates boredom.
- Make one day a week a meatless day.
- Include low-fat dairy products and eggs as good sources of protein.
Last bit of advice:
No one is saying you have to go completely meatless or become vegetarian, unless of course you want to. It should, though, cause you to reconsider the frequency you consume red and processed meat, the leanness of meat you’re choosing and to consider other good plant sources of protein. Common sense tells us to make our lifestyle and food choices as healthy as possible each day. If more of us would do this, think of how much healthier of a nation we could be.
