Processed foods are increasingly under more and more of a spotlight, specifically with regards to their affects on our health. Experts now weigh in on processed meats and which ones are the worst for us, as the World Health Organization says those very foods cause cancer. Veuer’s Tony Spitz has the details.
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00:00Processed foods are increasingly under more and more of a spotlight,
00:03specifically with regards to their effects on our health.
00:06Now, experts weigh in on processed meats and which ones are the worst for us,
00:10as the World Health Organization says those very foods cause cancer.
00:14Dietician at the Cleveland Clinic's Center for Human Nutrition,
00:17Kirsten Patruzzi, tells USA Today,
00:19Processed foods include more types of meats than you might imagine.
00:22While any meat with chemical additives is certainly processed,
00:25by definition, it also includes any that have been fermented,
00:28cured, or smoked to increase shelf life or flavor.
00:31Dr. Donald Hensroot of the Mayo Clinic also told USA Today
00:34that since red meat is already worse for you than, say, chicken or fish,
00:38processed red meats could pose a greater health risk as well.
00:41And all of this lines up with an analysis by the International Agency for Research
00:44on Cancer Working Group from 2015,
00:46which looked at 800 independent studies related to processed meats from around the globe.
00:51In particular, their findings suggested an increased risk for colorectal and stomach cancer,
00:55and that the more processed meats consumed,
00:57the higher the probability those cancers became.
01:00But the question remains, why does it increase those risks?
01:03Experts say that in the same way smoke can cause cancer in lungs,
01:06smoke preservation methods can do the same to the digestive tract.
01:10In addition, preservation chemicals such as nitrates and nitrites
01:13are often used in processed meats.
01:15Compounds more recent studies have shown can increase not just digestive tract issues,
01:19but also increase the chances of breast and prostate cancers as well.
01:27you