Processed meats such as bacon, sausages and ham do cause cancer according to the World Health Organisation.
In a report released this week by the WHO’s research agency, there is conclusive evidence that daily consumption of 50 grams of processed meat increased the chance of developing cancer by 18%.
Dr Wendy Snowdon from the W.H.O’s Western Pacific Region says ensuring your eating a variety of food is the best mitigation
“I think this comes back to the messages we’ve been trying to promote for a long time in the Pacific about you know using local foods, eating a variety of foods, not sticking to just 1 type of food in your diet, but yes if you’re going to have processed meat tonight, maybe you’re not going to have it tomorrow and also making sure that we have plenty of fruits and vegetables, local root crops and those and minimizing overall the intake of more processed foods."
She stops short of saying let’s halt meat consumption. She also clarifies that the evidence on red meat is inconclusive and requires further study.
President of the Master Butchers Association, Gregory Yee refutes the report saying that the likelihood of the population in Fiji developing cancer by eating these processed meats would be minimal as the cancerous causing agent in these products are nitrites and not all sausage products contain nitrites.
