Bag the bacon in that BLT, curb your cold cut combos and toss out the tube steak. That’s the advice of a physician’s nonprofit that says eating red or processed meats "kills more people than tobacco."
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), a nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., filed a petition May 7, 2012 with the White House.
PCRM was asking for an executive order banning staged photo opportunities that show the President, the First Family, the Vice President, and members of the President’s Cabinet eating unhealthy foods — including processed meats — that can cause cancer and obesity.
The Petition for Executive Action argues that such photographs are better publicized than health messages like the federal dietary guidelines, and are likely to add to ignorance about health and nutrition.
“The White House would never set up a photo op showing the president buying cigarettes, so why is it OK to show him eating a hot dog?” says PCRM nutrition education director Susan Levin, M.S., R.D in a released statement.
“Processed meats like hot dogs kill more Americans each year than tobacco does, and they cost taxpayers billions of dollars in healthcare. As role model to millions of Americans the president has a responsibility to watch what he eats in public.”
Consuming red and processed meats increases the risk of colorectal cancer, according to a large number of studies, including the landmark European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study.
The study found a combination of these four dietary factors -- fiber, fish, red and processed meats --plays a major role in colorectal cancer etiology, in addition to alcohol intake, obesity and low physical activity.
Eating fish and fiber reduces your risk while consuming red and processed meats raises it.
More than 140,000 Americans are diagnosed with colorectal cancer each year. According to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control, a third of all Americans are considered obese.
Another recent study from the Harvard School of Public Health says that a daily serving of processed meats like hot dogs, sausage and bacon, substantially increases the risk of premature death due to heart attack, stroke and diabetes.
Barack Obama isn’t the first U.S. President to eat a hot dog during a photo op. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is credited with starting the practice and thus popularizing a food once disdained by consumers.
Since then, presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan have also been caught on camera eating unhealthy foods. Now Americans consume 7 billion hot dogs between Memorial Day and Labor Day each year, according to PCRM.
“One hot dog once in a while won’t give you cancer,” said Colleen Doyle, MS, RD, American Cancer Society director of nutrition and physical activity, “but given the choice, I’d avoid them.”
Doyle agrees high consumption of processed meats like hot dogs, pepperoni, and bacon are associated with increased risk of cancers of the lower colon and rectum.
Studies show the preservatives — nitrites and nitrates — in processed meat to preserve color and prevent spoilage are likely to blame for an increase in several chronic illnesses.
“Unfortunately, these compounds can be converted to nitrosamines, which are also known causes of cancer in animals, although the link in people is unclear. Hot dogs, bacon and the like may also be preserved by methods involving smoke or high amounts of salt, which also increases the exposure to potentially carcinogenic chemicals,” Doyle said.
High consumption of processed meat is defined as 1 ounce per day, five to six times per week for men, and 1 ounce per day, two to three days per week for women. One bun-length hot dog is about 2 ounces, and two slices of bacon is about an ounce.
Lynette Summerill is an award-winning writer and Scuba enthusiast living in San Diego, CA with her husband and two beach loving dogs. In addition to writing about cancer-related issues for EmpowHER, her work has been seen in newspapers and magazines around the world.
Sources and Reader Information:
Doctors Petition White House to Bar Obama, Biden from Eating Junk Food in Public. Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine Press Release. 8 May 2012. Access at:
http://www.pcrm.org/media/news/white-house-bar-obama-biden-junk-food-photos
European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study key findings online at :
http://epic.iarc.fr/keyfindings.php
“Red and Processed Meat Consumption and Risk of Incident Coronary Heart Disease, Stroke, and Diabetes Mellitus: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” Renata Micha, Sarah K. Wallace, Dariush Mozaffarian, Circulation, online May 17, 2010. Harvard School of Public Health press release/video at: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/2010-releases/processed-meats-unprocessed-heart-disease-diabetes.html
American Cancer Society. “Hot Dog! Headlines can be deceiving. Colleen Doyle. 31 March 2011. Access at:
http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/News/ExpertVoices/post/2011/03/31/Hot-dog!-Headlines-Can-Be-Deceiving.aspx
Reviewed May 15, 2012
by Michele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Jody Smith