Finnish Professor agrees with WHO: Sausage a day ups cancer risk

Nutrition professor Mikael Fogelholm says he believes the World Health Organisation’s guidelines about the cancer risks of red and processed meat consumption published on Monday back up research that has long been known.

In a report released Monday, the cancer agency of the World Health Organization (WHO) evaluated the carcinogenicity of the human consumption of red meat and processed meat.

After a thorough review of the literature, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified the consumption of red meat as probably carcinogenic to humans, an association observed mainly for colorectal cancer, but also pancreatic cancer and prostate cancer.

Processed meat was also classified as carcinogenic to humans, based on sufficient evidence in humans that it causes colorectal cancer.

The experts further concluded that each 50 gram portion of processed meat eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18 percent.

The report has made headlines worldwide, because, in effect, the new classification places cured and processed meats in the same category as asbestos, alcohol, arsenic and tobacco.

Finnish expert agrees

University of Helsinki Nutrition Sciences Professor Mikael Fogelholm says the association between red and processed meat and cancer was known already in 2007, so the IARC has not based its report on anything new.

“We’ve had lots of data on the association for over a decade already. Apparently, now the evidence has become so strong that the experts can confidently speak of a causal relationship.”

Fogelholm says a diet that includes daily meat products increases the risk of bowel cancer.

“100 grams a day will do it, but you need a lot of ham on your bread if you are looking to reach this amount,” he says.

Unlike the WHO, however, Fogelholm wouldn’t go as far as saying that bacon is as dangerous to people's health as tobacco.

“If you compare someone who uses a lot of meat products to someone who doesn’t eat them at all, the risk is one and a half times greater. Tobacco increases health risks ten-fold. So, if you had to choose the lesser of the two evils, it would be bacon.”

 

Yle Finland