Pepperoni Killed Tony Snow
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine isn't a big fan of meat. According to Newsweek, only about 5 percent of its members are physicians. But they're determined to let the death of no meat-eater go unremarked upon in their op-eds—apparently eating deli sandwiches killed Tony Snow, and now it's killing your kids:
Food manufacturers and their lobbyists like to pretend that even the most unhealthful foods like hot dogs, bacon and other processed meats are OK in moderation. And anyone with a pepperoni addiction likes to pretend that jogging three miles a day will keep them healthy. But late last year, the game was up….
In fact, according to researchers, just one 50-gram serving of bacon, sausage, deli meats, or other processed meat (think one hot dog) daily increases our risk of colorectal cancer, on average, by 21 percent. Do the math. If your spouse or your kids are eating ham slices or hot dogs just a couple of times a week, they are significantly increasing their risk of colon cancer.
Via CCF.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
Unmitigated Boulderdash. Eat hearty people. And make sure you get your colon checked regularly as per clinical recommendation starting at age 50.
They're going to have to pry my meat from my hot, sweaty hands.
Wait a second, that doesn't sound right.
Has anyone met a lifelong vegan who does not look ematiated?
Has anyone met a lifelong vegan who does not look like he's waiting to die?
So if one 50 gram serving increases my chances of dying of cancer by 21% then does the five servings I had yesterday mean I am writing this from the grave?
"Has anyone met a lifelong vegan who does not look like he's waiting to die?"
Not me. I live near an art college so I see a lot of vegans. Ovo vegetarians are usually healthy looking. Strict vegans - not so much.
Art, I am afraid you are now dead. Sorry to breat it to you but you just commited suicide yesterday.
The secret to avoiding cancer is to die young.
See the picture of W. and Tony Snow? Notice how the meat killed Tony and the pretzel almost got W.?
Food is out to get us. Soon the food will even infiltrate our precious bodily fluids. This is why I only drink Brawndo, for the good of my bodily fluids. It has electrolytes and shit.
Ironic:
I just knew I felt too good.
I guess I can now, drink, smoke and eat whatever I want, without having to listen to the concerned citizens at the PCRM, PETA, CSPI, etc.
A new study published in a respected medical journal reports that being born increases your risk of dying by 100%.
Art,
you should limit yourself to fifteen schnitzengruben, though. that's just common sense
>>does the five servings I had yesterday mean I am writing this from the grave?
Yes, and if you're in Chicago you can vote from there too.
NNG,
100% of 0% is still 0%...
If your spouse or your kids are eating ham slices or hot dogs just a couple of times a week, they are significantly increasing their risk of colon cancer.
If they are eating like we demand they are significantly decreasing their quality of life.
This is the problem with all fanatics. It's not enough that someone may, say, eat LESS meat or bad-for-you foods, they must eat NONE or they will die (or are evil). Don't they realize that many people will conclude "well, since I could never eat less than one gram of bacon a week and since one gram will kill me I might as well enjoy myself and eat as much as I want."
PCRM is a PETA front, with a minimal membership of actual physicians.
Kevin
On a long enough time scale, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
Crimethink, can you not get the point of what I was trying to say without having to check the mathematics? Jeeze.
Ok, I did the math. According to SEER men have a 5.29% chance of being diagnosed with colorectal cancer in their lifetime. I know this is a gross simplification (I'm no statistician) but if eating deli meat increases my chance of cancer to 6.4% from 5.29%... pass the mustard, I've got a Nathan's kosher on the grill.
seriously, though. I suspect the real stat means that if your baseline probability of dying of colorectal cancer is 1% (as opposed to other forms of mortality), the first day you eat meat, your probability of dying from colorectal cancer goes to 1.21%. The second day it goes up to 1.46%, etc.
won't stop me from having pepperoni pizza
Has anyone met a lifelong vegan who does not look ematiated?
I know some overweight vegetarians and vegans.
How, exactly, do they get from "research" that a daily serving of meat increases your risk, to a claim that eating meat one or two times a week increases your risk?
I knew a vegan. She always lectured me about how eating at Chick-Fil-A would give me cancer. After that, she'd take a long pull off of her Marlboro Red.
In fact, according to researchers, just one 50-gram serving of bacon, sausage, deli meats, or other processed meat (think one hot dog) daily increases our risk of colorectal cancer, on average, by 21 percent. Do the math. If your spouse or your kids are eating ham slices or hot dogs just a couple of times a week, they are significantly increasing their risk of colon cancer.
Note from grader: Please so your work to receive full credit.
It is true that a large serving of barbecued steak has the same quantity of carcinogens as about 100 cigarettes.
Also, even non-smokers who work as short order fry cooks for a long time get more lung cancer than smokers.
My point is, when it comes to meddlesome nannyism, meat is getting off scott free compared to tobacco.
It is true that a large serving of barbecued steak has the same quantity of carcinogens as about 100 cigarettes [citation needed].
Also, even non-smokers who work as short order fry cooks for a long time get more lung cancer than smokers[citation needed].
Fixed.
"only about 5 percent of its members are physicians"
Well that's about 5,000 physicians. Of course they have non-physician supporters. So does Doctors Without Borders. So what.
In fact, according to researchers, just one 50-gram serving of bacon, sausage, deli meats, or other processed meat (think one hot dog) daily ...
Guys, note that they're saying you have to eat at least one 50-gram serving each day to increase your risk of colorectal cancer by 21%. I think that word "daily" was missed by a few of the posters.
"Has anyone met a lifelong vegan who does not look like he's waiting to die?"
Oooh, ooh, I have. But they eat some sort of imitation meat or something. I'm not really sure. I was surprised when she told me that a grocery store in Alabama actually HAD a vegan section.
I guess I can now, drink, smoke and eat whatever I want, without having to listen to the concerned citizens at the PCRM, PETA, CSPI, etc.
But, Art- I thought zombies only ate brains.
Strict vegans - not so much.
sorry, the term "Vegan" suggests "strict". If you ain't strict, you ain't vegan, you're something else.
stupid keyboard
I love this. When you need to make a statement, use percentage points.
If eating 50 grams of "processed meat" daily increases my chances of contracting colorectal cancer by 21% but my base chance is only 10%* then it only shifts my chances from 10% to 12.1%. That looks a hell of a lot less scary than 21%.
*This 10% base is entirely pulled out of my cancer riddled ass. Truth be told I have no idea what the baseline of a Male Caucasian of N. European descent eating a typical American diet is. I suspect that, like many things in life, it is a number that really can't be accurately quantified.
How dare they slur bacon by calling it a "processed meat."
Long term fry cooks who are nonsmokers? That's a sample size of about two.
Aaah crap. I see that Matt Moore beat me to it. This is what I get for posting first and reading later.
This article neglects the fact that this particular kind of cancer ran in Snow's family. I'll put his genes as a bigger risk factor than a deli sandwich.
No Name - According to the American Cancer Society there's a genetic disorder called Lynch Syndrome that increases the lifetime risk to 70 or 80%. That's an increased risk of over 1000%. So, yeah... your genes are a much bigger factor than sausage.
Moral of the story: Beware of statistics. 79% of them can be made to say anything.
"This is why I only drink Brawndo, for the good of my bodily fluids"
thoreau,
You drink Brawndo and are smart. I drink Braindo and I am not. Nor brawny. Are these products mislabeled or what?
Inquiring--what passes for--minds want to know.
Saying that a condition runs in your family usually just means you're more prone to it. That doesn't mean you can't take steps to minimize your risks. I've actually heard people say that lung cancer runs in their family! I'll give you one guess why. It's also true that there are smokers who reach old age without getting lung cancer. EVERYONE who wants to avoid diseases should minimize their risks. Same with obesity. When it "runs in the family," it mysteriously doesn't hit the one vegan member.
Most vegetarians I've known have been overweight. And those who weren't had other health problems.
But there's something between the two extremes: eating lean, unprocessed meats.
In other food-related news, FDA just linked salmonella with jalape?o peppers, something I eat religiously.
If I don't post again . . .
"increases our risk of colorectal cancer, on average, by 21 percent. Do the math. If your spouse or your kids are eating ham slices or hot dogs just a couple of times a week, they are significantly increasing their risk of colon cancer."
Why does the PCRM just focus on the ass? Pretty telling.
"A new study published in a respected medical journal reports that being born increases your risk of dying by 100%."
So does being aborted.
I know this is late, but Episiarch @ 5:16, that was hilarious.
Unmitigated Boulderdash. Eat hearty people.
I'm pretty sure that eating people, hearty or otherwise, is discouraged by most experienced defense attorneys.
Unless you mean "eat" hearty people.
lunchstealer sez I know some overweight vegetarians and vegans.
Bovines are vegetarians.
The PCRM ran a "public service announcement" on the TV station where I worked about a year ago: The spot depicted a crew of gleeful busybodies in white coats barging into a house, snatching "junk" food from the hands of the residents and replacing the grub with "healthy" veggie crap. At the end you seen them coming out of the house, crowing: "Only ten million to go..."
And yet, when one describes such creeping nanny-state shenanigans as "the new fascism," people call it overreaction...
"Has anyone met a lifelong vegan who does not look like he's waiting to die?"
Lifelong? They look that way after about 3 weeks, don't they?
I wonder if we all ever become 'virtuous' in what we eat, death will cease for all humanity. I'm looking forward to it, eternity with no pepperoni, yippee!
Aw, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. Forfty percent of all people know that
What's important is that the PCRM's contextless statistic will probably make it onto the evening news while Kerry and Nick are stuck doing Red Eye.
is this a hobby or do they actually get money from their schtick?
And only 100,000? Fer crissakes, you can get 20 million people to log in to fred on you tube, 100,000 is a tiny bunch of kooks in this day and age.
"Bovines are vegetarians."
Herbivore is not the same as vegetarian. Vegetarians do not eat meat by choice, with herbivores it is biology that does the trick.
Anyone else get hungry after clicking on Belinda's PETA link?
Also, most of the overweight vegetarians and vegans I ran into had a steady diet of tofu burgers/steak and fried cheese.
Which is only about 3 friends. So, take that for what it's worth.
So, M?decins Sans Fronti?res is an organization that sends real doctors to some of the worst places in the world and really treats people. PCRM is on the model of CSPI and other press release factories, whose the movers and shakers are actually lawyers, lobbyists and PR flacks, as opposed to scientists. By putting "Physicians" in its title PCRM is committing the fallacy of the appeal to false authority. That's "so, what."
Kevin
Those who eat out a lot are subject not only to processed meats, but trans fats from margarine, and oxidized oils from deep fat friers. Not to mention the sugar from unlimited refill soft drinks.
See "Super Size Me." Note that the guy who eats Big Macs every day looks fine. But he rarely eats the french fries.
"It is true that a large serving of barbecued steak has the same quantity of carcinogens as about 100 cigarettes."
That's why I don't smoke my barbecued steak.
"By putting "Physicians" in its title PCRM is committing the fallacy of the appeal to false authority."
A group of 5,000 physicians should be entitled to use the word "physicians" whether you like them or not.
A group whose membership is 95% non-M.D.s isn't a "group of 5,000 physicians." If those 5K wanted to be called "The PETA Physicians Section" or somewhat, sure, OK.
Kevin
What do vegan zombies eat?
...grains...grains...grains
Kevrob, I understand your frustration, but if you think that's bad, wait till you hear about the misnamed "Center for Consumer Freedom." It's an astroturf organization "whose...movers and shakers are actually lawyers, lobbyists and PR flacks, as opposed to scientists," or for that matter, consumers. It's a front group for alcohol & tobacco companies, restaurants, junk food companies and "payday loan" establishments. Despite the name it has ZERO consumers. Its enemies include Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Greenpeace, the Humane Society and the 5,000 physicians of the PCRM.
You might want to consider taking action against them, since their website seems to be making the exact same points as your posts without citing you as a source!
So the people involved with the Center for Consumer Freedom don't buy anything, ever?
Huh.
Kevrob, I think you misunderstood the point of Belinda's post. She's not comparing the value of the 2 groups' work, she's just saying that both groups have large percentages of lay support but legitimately use Physicians/Doctors in their names.
"So the people involved with the Center for Consumer Freedom don't buy anything, ever?"
Good point. Now that you mention it, their spokesman looks like he consumes quite a bit:
http://www.ethicurean.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/martosko.jpg
He's only in his 30s! Compare that to the head of the Humane Society, a longtime vegan, who's in his 40s:
http://www.humanesociety.org/legislation_laws/wayne_pacelle_the_animal_advocate
Kevrob's link above (http://www.ncahf.org/articles/o-r/pcrm.html) claims that the number of actual physicians in the PCRB group at 0.5% percent, not 5%. Wikipedia has the same numbers: 100K lay members, and 5M of the anointed.
Oh dear.
Kevrob's link says "less than 0.5% of physicians are members," it doesn't say that less than 0.5% of PCRM's members are physicians.
Wikipedia says 100,000 lay members and 5,000 physician members. If 5,000 of 105,000 members are physicians, that's just under 5%, not 0.5%.
It doesn't matter how many physicians they have. If they're wrong, they're wrong.