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Processed meat linked to early death: Study

Written by: QMI Agency
Mar. 7, 2013

Workers from a local radio station hand out bacon to horseracing fans. (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)

In a study of nearly half a million people, researchers were able to significantly link processed meats, like sausage and bacon, with early death.

The findings, which appear Thursday in the journal BMC Medicine, differ from other studies because the researchers adjusted for other lifestyle factors long associated with high meat consumption: smoking, drinking, lack of exercise and the like.

There were still "significant associations" between consumption of processed meat with cardiovascular disease, cancer and "other causes of death" — and the more we eat, the greater the risk.

The study points to higher levels of saturated fat and cholesterol than in fresh meat, as well as the salt content and the carcinogen-containing chemicals used in preservatives.

"We estimated that 3.3% of all deaths could be prevented if processed meat consumption were below 20 g/day," the authors wrote, which is akin to approximately one slice of bacon.

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