Middle-class food myths

[sawyl]

Yesterday's Observer had an interesting piece on the myth of the healthy middle-class diet. Amidst the worries about atheroma streaking in four year-olds due to high salt levels, the role of salt in the increase in obesity — more salt means more kids are drinking more sugary drinks and putting on more weight — came some particularly ominous comments about processed meats:

More controversial still are [Martin Wiseman, scientific adviser to the World Cancer Research Fund]'s views on processed meats - eaten on an almost daily basis by children but linked in a comprehensive 2007 study to cancer late in life. Eating as little as 50g a day (one sausage, or a couple of slices of ham or chorizo) increases the risk of bowel cancer by 21% - from a 1:18 chance over a man's lifetime to a 1:15 chance. For women, the figures are slightly lower - and for children, there was no available data.

"What these meats have in common is that they are cured with a salt of some kind," Wiseman explains. "This seems to change the chemistry of the meat so it either contains, or contains something that is turned into, nitrosamines - and nitrosamines are carcinogenic compounds."

I'm just thankful I'm a veggie of long standing...