bacon causes cancer! WHO!

[ignoramus]

The WHO said today that eating all meats, but in particular processed meats will increase your chances of getting cancer x2 (smoking = x50).

I would like to know if we started off as meat eaters in the jungle or as herbivores?
Most primates don't eat meat naturally (as a staple diet), do they?

Also, if we evolved without intelligence and didn't learn to make fire, would we still be meat eaters today?

Have we cheated evolution (so to speak) through the gift of intelligence and morphed into the homo sapiens so we can now cook and eat meat, or because of it?



Then we hear stories that contradict the above

Fans of the streaky pork delight will feel vindicated, others will probably be horrified, but it's true: 116-year-old Susannah Mushatt Jones would "eat bacon all day long" if she had her say, the New York Post reported her niece Lois Judge saying.

[robvalue]

Yeah, I heard on the news about some meats contributing to cancer because of chemicals put into them.

I've heard about this before as well, to do with things that are added for presentation.

I'm not completely clear whether some forms of meat can themselves be carcinogenic, or whether it's just the things that get added.

[ignoramus]

They asked that same question on the abc today and he said it's not the nitrates or other additives, it's the meat itself interacting with our bodies.
That's why I'm curious to know whether we evolved to eat meat or something we discovered after a pig got caught in a bushfire a million years ago and the smell was "delicious"!

[robvalue]

Really! OK, interesting.

I don't know too much about our history in that way. I'd assume we did eat meat in fair quantities. But then, we didn't live very long until recently. If people capped out at 30 or 40 anyway, things causing cancer were probably not going to matter much; especially if they take a long time to build up.

We've all changed a lot as our diets have developed, so it could be a new problem. I have no idea! I don't eat meat anyway so I'm free from concern there.

[GrandizerII]

They asked that same question on the abc today and he said it's not the nitrates or other additives, it's the meat itself interacting with our bodies.
That's why I'm curious to know whether we evolved to eat meat or something we discovered after a pig got caught in a bushfire a million years ago and the smell was "delicious"!

Maybe it's something to do about us having much easier access to meat than ever before.

Also, even if it's from WHO, I am suspicious about the whole "cause" thing. A true experiment would be unethical in this case.

[houseofcantor]

Everything causes cancer.

Here's a link for ya in regards to yer question: http://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge...-103874273

[ignoramus]

At least I'm with safe with my hot dogs on Fridays. Lips, arseholes and sawdust never killed anyone, did it?

[Iroscato]

I hear what they're saying.

And yet...

Bacon.

[houseofcantor]

Bacon tastes like salty fat to me, yuk.

[Iroscato]

Bacon tastes like salty fat to me, yuk.

Leave this galaxy immediately. By decree of the Emperor, you are hereby banished from this dimensional fold >:C