Is red meat really bad for you?
On Monday, the World Health Organization added processed meat to its list of substances it considers cancer-causing. Bacon, sausages and similar food products are unequivocally “carcinogenic to humans,” wrote the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the cancer research arm of the WHO. Words like may be or might be make no appearance in the organization’s statement. Red meat, meanwhile, was also given a new designation: The WHO has classified it as “probably carcinogenic” to humans, a classification given to a large group of carcinogens that includes glyphosate, a widespread and controversial herbicide. So what makes processed meat such an unambiguous health threat, compared with unprocessed red meat? Well, as one might imagine, it’s all in the process. Processed meat is defined by the WHO as “meat that has been transformed” by way of “salting, curing, fermentation, smoking,” or any other means to enhance the flavor or preserve it for a longer shelf life. That means bacon, hot dogs, sausage, beef jerky, canned meat and mostly anything else that isn’t just a simple hunk of animal flesh falls under that category. These transformative processes typically involve adding chemical compounds to the meat, or preparing it in a way that inadvertently adds chemicals. And as nutritionist Atli Arnarson points out, these additives can transform into compounds that have been linked to cancer when the meat product is being made, or while it is being cooked.…