The good news is that the bacon-cigarette comparison is, simply (and to use a precise scientific term) cobblers.
In fact, this is perhaps the most egregious example to date of well-meaning health advice relating to diet in particular that is almost designed to be misinterpreted and generate unnecessary panic.
What has happened is that the WHO has moved 'processed meat' into its Class 1 category of 'known carcinogens', joining horrors such as tobacco smoke, diesel fumes, asbestos, plutonium and arsenic (non-processed red meat falls into Class 2).
The good news is that the bacon-cigarette comparison is, simply (and to use a precise scientific term) cobblers.
Michael Hanlon
It would be quite reasonable to infer from this that a plate of salami or, indeed, a bacon sandwich is as dangerous as a lump of deadly plutonium – or even a Volkswagen exhaust pipe.
Large numbers were bandied around. Thirty-four-thousand cancer deaths worldwide a year. An increase in risks of bowel cancer by about a sixth (scary stuff). Eat just two ounces of cured pork a day and you are heading for an early grave.
Except, you are not. What the report's authors failed to stress was the difference between RELATIVE and ABSOLUTE risks. If you want to flam up a health scare, Rule One is always, always concentrate on the former at the expense of the latter.
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