Have your bacon, and eat it too

When my doctor told me after my physical that I could eat bacon every day if I wanted, I was a little surprised. 

Surely, not bacon. In grade 12, I wrote an essay on the effects of bacon on the human body. My conclusion: Bacon makes you obese. It clogs the arteries. It’s a heart-stopper.  

But is it true? 

As it turns out, I was likely basing my findings on misleading research that first, fat causes you to be fat, and second, that red meat significantly increases your risk of heart disease. 

Not so, says the latest research. Researchers at Dalhousie and McMaster universities led a panel of international scientists who concluded that lowering red or processed meat consumption had little and often-trivial effects in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, heart attack, cancer, diabetes, or death from any cause. Any cause! 

I have to admit, I like this research. Because as much as I tell myself I feel better when I eat more chickpeas and kidney beans instead of steak, it’s a sham. I can’t convince my body of that. 

Some types of food definitely make me feel better than others. After eating out for three days in a row, I start to feel lethargic. But when eating home-cooked meals, whether they include bacon-wrapped sausage or cheese-chili hot dogs, I feel just fine. 

There has to be a balance. And one of the best rules is to not over-eat. My co-worker, who has tried numerous diets, says this is the key (other than exercise) to keeping off the pounds: Eat until you’re 80% full, and then quit. 

I sometimes do this, but it’s only so I can eat more later in the evening. Maintaining room for ice cream is important, too.  

But maybe ice cream isn’t so bad for you either. My doctor said I have “normal high” cholesterol. In the past, he said they’d give me medication for this, but not anymore. Perhaps new research has come out? I don’t know, but do I really want to investigate? 

I believe in science and I think all research has value – but science is constantly evolving and it does succumb to bias. Researchers build on other research, sometimes without thinking. This is why existing claims must continually be challenged and re-examined. 

Correlation does not equal causation. Just because someone who eats red meat dies at 35 from a heart attack, doesn’t mean it’s because he ate red meat. This is, in essence, what some of the new research revealed. 

And they found that the increased risk on a population, if there was any, was still very small. In one study, reducing red meat intake by three servings a week offered seven fewer cancer deaths per 1,000 people. That sounds good, but this is still less than 1% of the population.  In other words, you still have pretty good odds.

If you’re that concerned about living longer, you might want to take public transportation instead of driving a car every day. Based on U.S. data, it’s twenty times safer to take the train or bus. This is statistically significant. You might also want to think twice about walking. Walking in Vancouver instead of driving increases your risk of death by 50%. As an avid walker, I’m convinced that walking is one of the riskiest behaviours you can engage in! 

We’re constantly weighing the costs of partaking in activities against the benefits, whether we realize it or not. We can now re-weigh the costs of reducing red meat consumption – the lost pleasure, the lost protein, the lost friends – against the apparently small health benefits. 

There’s only one question that remains. What about ice cream? Where, might I ask, are all the studies on the benefits of ice cream?