Cancer is caused by multiple things, however most cancer patients are known to eat lots of red and processed meat, according to Sarah Boseley, a health editor of the Guardian.

Red meat, typically beef and lamb, is the state of color before it gets cooked.  Processed meat is when the meat is not sold fresh, whether it has already been preserved, cured, salted, or smoked.  Bacon is a well-known processed meat widely consumed by many.   

“Those who ate the most processed meat had around a 17 per cent higher risk of developing bowel cancer, compared to those who ate the least,” said Casey Dunlop, a health information officer at Cancer Research UK.  

Though scientists have not found any clear evidence of how processed and red meat can cause cancer, they seemed to be triggered by the chemicals found in the meat.  According to Dunlop, there is a chemical found in red meat known as haem that damages the cells lining the bowel.  Once the cells are damaged, replication takes place in order to replace them.  However, this increases risk of errors in a person’s DNA that eventually leads to cancer,

Processed and red meat are not technically bad for a person to force them to be removed from one’s diet completely.  Consuming more than enough builds bigger problems in life compared to an average or minimal consumption.  “Too much of a good thing is bad for you,” is strongly advised in this situation especially since meat is a good source of protein, iron, and zinc.

On average, a person can eat 285 g (0.63 lbs) of meat but the recommended amount is 70 g (0.15 lbs) or less.  This will not guarantee a person to be risk free of cancer but it can lower the chances and extend one’s life a little longer.

This isn’t a light matter since processed meat is rising to the same level as cigarettes being the major cause of cancer.  Though the degree of danger isn’t as close, they are still placed in the same category.  “It is important to note even things such as aloe vera are on the list of carcinogens,” said Allison Aubrey from NPR.  Carcinogens are substances that are able to produce cancer in a living tissue.

Most people don’t seem alarmed by what they eat can potentially kill them.  Eating processed meat is more common compared to smoking.  “The idea that people who eat lots of bacon are more likely to engage in risky behaviors (like smoking…) that lead to cancer; and that non-meateaters exhibit other healthful virtues (…like eating vegetables) that protect them.,” said Anahad O’Connor from New York Times.  Everything that is done to a person’s body has an effect in the future.