Well it’s not really a question of bacon or salmon. Occasionally it can be bacon and salmon.
I came home early today with ManFlu which gave me an opportunity to focus on work e-mail and do some reading. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently released a report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) on the potential causal relationship between the consumption of red meat and processed meat with neoplastic diseases. The paper in Lancet Oncology is available for free. The IARC paper’s authors reported that processed meat can cause bowel carcinoma and red meat probably causes bowel carcinoma. This doesn’t mean if you eat a tin of spam or eat a sausage you’ll develop bowel carcinoma nor does it mean you cannot enjoy a good steak or pork chop occasionally. In my mind if these are occasional treats I’m going to make sure I focus on quality rather than quantity.
What it does mean, and none of this is new information, is you shouldn’t eat bacon everyday but one or two rashers a week is probably okay. A small steak once a week is probably okay too. It also means we need to eat more fruit and vegetables.
What does it mean for me as a lover of red meat and SPAM? Well as I’ve written recently I’m taking my health a little more seriously especially after the faecal occult blood test gift from the government and my first colonoscopy which thankfully didn’t find a bowel carcinoma (yet). With an eye on blood biochemistry and bowel health I’ll still occasionally indulge in bacon and SPAM. After all Canberra boasts Australia’s best artisan bacon and my shelf of shame has three tins of SPAM after so much fun on the Hawaiian holiday adventure.
So tonight I just had salmon mainly because I felt unwell and just wanted something simple. Click on the photograph and you’ll see a short time-lapse video of me eating this bad boy.
