digg

Facebook Connect Join Digg About

Cured Meats (Bacon, etc.) Tied to Childhood Leukemia Risk

canada.com — Kids who regularly eat cured meats like bacon and hot dogs may have a higher risk of leukemia, while vegetables & soy products may help protect against cancer. Among 515 children & teens with and without acute leukemia, those who ate cured meats more than once a week had a 74 percent higher risk of leukemia than those who rarely ate these foods.

Who dugg this? Made popular Feb 3, 2009

Digg DudeWhat is Digg?

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. Digg surfaces the best stuff as submitted and voted on by the community. Take the Tour to learn more.

158 Comments

show profanity settings
expand all
  • Crazysticks, on 02/03/2009, -8/+120Leukemia? I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. IN MY BACON CAR.
  • badqat, on 02/03/2009, -13/+66Leukemia, here I come...because I refuse to give up bacon.
  • walkertexas69, on 02/03/2009, -2/+32You don't have to give these things up completely. But so little of our diets is actual food these days that it is not surprising that certain illnesses are on the rise. In the last couple of years my diet has switched to mostly 'real' food and it has made a huge difference in everything I do. By real food I mean fresh meat, vegetables, and fruit. Bread from smaller bakeries that has fewer ingredients (preservatives, colour, etc), oatmeal rather than cereal. That's not to say I am on a strict diet I just make sure the majority comes from good food sources.

    I recommend reading "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan.
  • mateo60, on 02/03/2009, -8/+33YOU TAKE THAT BACK!!
  • UncleCrapper, on 02/03/2009, -3/+28Regardless of how much eating cured meats might raise your risk of leukemia, the risk of developing childhood leukemia is infinitesimally small. An increase of 74% in an already minutely small risk is far less dramatic than the percentage increase might lead you to believe.

    And there is a huge difference between a risk factor that increases BY 74% versus one that increases TO 74%. Also, the article does point out that there is no proven correlation between leukemia and cured meats. The association is only coincidental at this point in the research.

    That said, moderation in all things. Eating too much of anything has risks, even supposedly benign foods like fruits and vegetables.
  • crawfishDigger, on 02/03/2009, -7/+28Whatever, dude. Vegans are just jealous that WE GET BACON...
  • michaelpinto, on 02/03/2009, -1/+20Here's a bit more detail from the article:
    "Dr. David C. Christiani of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston told Reuters Health, based on this and previous studies, he and his colleagues recommend that children not eat high amounts of cured meats and fish. During the curing process, foods are preserved and flavored by the addition of salt, sugar and chemicals called nitrites; the foods are often smoked as well. Nitrites are precursors to compounds known as nitrosamines, which are potentially cancer-promoting."
  • COLDshiver, on 02/03/2009, -4/+22http://bacolicio.us/http://www.canada.com/health/C ...

    Fixed.
  • inactive, on 02/04/2009, -0/+14shotgun!
  • Mankrik, on 02/03/2009, -3/+16Cue the forest-eating hippies to hate on the meat-eaters.
  • benologist, on 02/03/2009, -0/+13Wouldn't it be easier if we just assume everything is tied to cancer?
  • mycoplasma, on 02/03/2009, -0/+12Just like people can 'start' irrelevant political debates?
  • gemlarin, on 02/03/2009, -4/+16Buried for talking bad about bacon.
  • Killphibian, on 02/03/2009, -0/+11All of Michael Pollan's work is excellent. Listening to him may save our species.
  • elhaf, on 02/03/2009, -2/+13You asked: as a corpse-eater myself, I must object to the sanctimonious tone always taken by what I assume is a vegan. You're the ones attacking the innocents, the plants. All they do is sit around all day, soaking up sunlight, getting their nutrition from dirt. Then what happens? Some ANIMAL comes along and eats them! Those dirty animals (me included) deserve to be eaten, unlike the poor plants. Now ***** off.
  • david76, on 02/03/2009, -2/+12Bacon wrapped tofu. Problem solved.
  • absolutelytrue, on 05/26/2009, -3/+13Amy is not going to like this.
  • RudeTurnip, on 02/03/2009, -0/+10mmmmm...back bacon
  • Twag86, on 02/03/2009, -0/+9Wait, there were people that didn't know that eating nitrates was bad for you?
  • Sethbacca, on 02/04/2009, -0/+9Bacon is THE cure!!!!!!!!!
  • Mankrik, on 02/03/2009, -1/+10"Simply" adjust your likes and dislikes.
    Sure thing buddy.

    I realize changing your diet and eating healthy isn't hard as some want to think, but it doesn't mean you can suddenly love salad the same way you love steaks/sugars/etc.
  • JanK1, on 02/03/2009, -4/+13Cancer never tasted so good.
  • inquebiss, on 02/03/2009, -1/+10Agreed. I don't think that cured/smoked meats are the problem at all. I'm pretty sure that box of hamburger helper has more nitrates and carcinogens than my delicious slab of smoked and cured pork belly.
  • michaelpinto, on 02/03/2009, -0/+8The study was about the amount of cured meat — so if you want to take a lesson home from the study you could decrease your chances of getting cancer from eating less cured meats and more veggies. Now you may give up bacon (and hot dogs, etc.) and still get cancer, and you may go on a bacon diet and not get any type of cancer at all — the key is in decreasing your chances.
  • wonderchemist, on 02/03/2009, -0/+8You can buy uncured bacon.
  • 0ceanic, on 02/03/2009, -0/+7dugg for being smart and logical. i wish digg was more this and less 4chan.
  • deviantsteve, on 02/03/2009, -3/+10The best things in life are not for free : (
  • dudestuff, on 02/03/2009, -0/+7your claim that nearly 1/7th of the world's population eats bacon twice a day sounds a little off to me.
  • computershack, on 02/04/2009, -0/+7And in other news, 100% of children who have Leukemia were found to have breathed air.
  • lowtolerance, on 02/03/2009, -1/+8there may or may not be some truth to that.
  • absurdist, on 02/04/2009, -0/+7And thanks for playing "Really Bad Analogy!"
  • PopsGG, on 08/28/2009, -2/+9In other news, buying $2 of lotto tickets increases your chances of winning the lotto over $1 of tickets by 100%. Chances you will win after buying $2 of tickets...still 2/175,711,536.
  • Akairenn, on 02/03/2009, -3/+10My body clearly wants bacon.

    The mere ghost of a scent of bacon starts my mouth salivating. Who am I to presume to argue with my body?
  • inactive, on 02/03/2009, -3/+9But the doctors told us it was all random mutations... Maybe the "cure for cancer" is really just not making all our food with processed chemicals and *****.
  • inquebiss, on 02/03/2009, -0/+6Yeah, I "force" myself to eat bacon.
  • lowtolerance, on 02/03/2009, -3/+9I'm still waiting for a study to tell me that my vegetarianism is going to kill me.
  • ckdiggs, on 02/03/2009, -3/+9Bacon is better than life itself, so this is a decent trade-off.
  • seledoux, on 02/04/2009, -1/+6you're grammatically incompetent
  • barryiggins, on 02/03/2009, -0/+5"canada.com"?
    yeah, thanks... canadian bacon doesn't count
  • BalsamLane, on 02/03/2009, -3/+8LEAVE BACON ALONE!!!
  • orangefly, on 02/03/2009, -0/+5i used to hate mustard....i think we dislike things when we're younger so we have something new to like later....
  • inactive, on 02/04/2009, -0/+5Buried as inaccurate. Bacon is linked to childhood (and adulthood) awesomeness.
  • Travelsonic, on 02/04/2009, -1/+6"...animal that lived a life of torment and pain"

    Hmmm..

    While I do not deny that animal cruelty is real, and is a real problem, this, IMO, is an overdramatic exaggeration. I blame PETA for that.
  • Logicexe, on 02/04/2009, -0/+5You guys are all missing the point, it says that bacon may be tied to CHILDHOOD leukemia.

    As far as I'm concerned it means more bacon for me.
  • diggduggjoe, on 02/04/2009, -0/+4Unfortunately, it is more expensive. I wish I knew why. It usually comes in a 12oz package instead of 1lb, too.

    Plus, it is harder to find. Only health minded stores carry it. I have to drive much further to find it. Sam's Club had it, then they dropped it.

    It's great bacon, though. The key to this study is more about balanced meals. BLT's FTW!!!
  • blumathu, on 02/04/2009, -0/+4lol... I can hear it now. "Who put bacon on our website!?!?"
  • lulzitsadigg, on 02/04/2009, -0/+4how is baccon formed?
  • iamnobody8614, on 02/04/2009, -0/+4You can pick it off.
  • walkertexas69, on 02/04/2009, -0/+4WTF are you talking about? By real food I mean non-processed food that would occur naturally. i.e. Fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy. You know...things that are actually food. As in REAL food.

    Not cheeze wiz, frozen entrees, simulated food with flavour that comes from chemicals, aspartame, margarine, etc. Yes... I am totally throwing around real in an inappropriate manner...
  • bonk2k, on 02/04/2009, -0/+4I'll cross under that bridge when I come to it. IN MY BACON BOAT. http://i.somethingawful.com/u/petey/comedygoldmine ...
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 100 of 163 discussions

  • Add a Comment

    Login or register to comment!
    Or, sign-in super fast with your Facebook account ...


© Digg Inc. 2009 — Content created and posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain | Terms of Use Updated | Privacy Policy
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.