WHO Said WHAT?!?!

If the recent findings from the World Health Organisation (WHO) are to be taken out of context (as much of the news reporting has done), we are all now vegetarians from fear alone. We have all known for some time that excessive meat consumption is not good for you, nor is the excessive intake of processed foods – meat or otherwise. To quote a famous poet, “No shit Sherlock”.

Whilst recent headlines may indicate that eating processed meats is as dangerous as smoking, it isn’t. Although the International Agency for Research on Cancer has included processed meats in Group 1 Carcinogens (a known cause of Bowel cancer). Now bacon, salami, and cured sausages are included with asbestos tobacco and arsenic. The reality is your risk of lung cancer is much greater from smoking cigarettes than getting bowel cancer from eating red meat. The classification is about the level of evidence and not the level of risk.
These findings further confirm all of our thoughts that moderation is the key. More veg and greens than meat, and minimise the amount of processed foods that we consume. Apparently I should drink more water and less beer too… that’s the truly bad news here!

I read somewhere in the last few days that all of us being equal, we have a 5% chance of getting colitis cancer and this is increased to 6% if we eat 50 grams (roughly 3 slices) of bacon per day. There are a lot of ‘facts’ floating around in the last week and the truth in some of the statements may be stretched, but again, they all lead to moderation being the key. In everything I have read there is no evidence that vegetarians have a lower risk of getting cancer than the rest of us.

Anyway, all this has prompted us to offer more portion size pieces for our customers. In the coming weeks you will be able to purchase 150-200gram portions of lean red meat from us. Remembering that the recommended amount of red meat to be consumed each week is 750 grams, three meals of a good quality relatively lean meat is advised.

Of course, your friendly butcher may advise breakfast of bacon and sausages, lunch of chicken, a pork chop for afternoon tea and then three meals of lean red meat a week… but we all know how butchers love to exaggerate!