Social Experiment. Become Me. What I see, you see.
2000s: Bacon achieves God-like status (apparently as a result of industry efforts)
2024: 500% surge in colorectal cancer among young people since 1999
Bacon is one of very few foods on the WHOs "definitely causes cancer" list. I'm guessing it comes as no surprise that this increase in cancer can possibly be explained by companies pushing profit.
I don’t think people started eating THAT much more bacon, although I am sure that all processed meats are a quick road to cancertown if you eat more than a tiny tiny amount
My money would be on a confluence of all sorts of various cancer causing things in our food and environment, each of which produces a significant but small impact on its own, and then maybe like 1-2 big ones which we will never really find out about
I don’t think people started eating THAT much more bacon, although I am sure that all processed meats are a quick road to cancertown if you eat more than a tiny tiny amount
Yeah, all processed meat has the same problem (nitrates), but I think you're right, bacon consumption probably hasn't increased enough to account for it all. I believe colorectal cancers have a very strong link with diet, though, so it's probably bacon along with many other foods that all come together to amplify it.
Is any of the 500% rise explained by better testing?
My first thought was microplastics and pfas, but I'm unaware of any studies delving into it.
Obesity is also a huge cancer risk factor (especially in under 55s) across most organs, and as we know obesity rates have increased a lot over recent decades.
However, this may well be a symptom. Obesity may be from the bad diet, and the diet may be the real cancer driver.
There are also studies connecting a lack if exercise with an increased cancer risk. But again it's hard to tell if it's an underlying cause.
When I've dug into this before, it's easy to find many studies connecting cancer and various foods or lifestyle choices, but it's also easy to find conflicting studies, which may be an indication that things are more complex than they appear.
My money is on energy drinks
You mean that there are consequences for drinking four loko out of a cup made of cooked weaved bacon?
Bacon weaved goblets, filled with TwoLoco^2^
The public is intrigued and will subscribe to your monthly newsletter with haste.
Hmm. People have been eating a LOT of bacon in the west for many decades.
Yeah, there's more discussion down the comment chain about how bacon is probably only one part of a wider issue.
This sounds like too big a jump to be explained by bacon. Microplastics maybe? :(
Risk factors include a family history of inflammatory bowel disease or colorectal cancer. Modifiable risk factors include obesity, tobacco use, alcohol consumption, and dietary habits such as low fiber intake, consumption of processed meats or sugar-sweetened beverages, and a high-fat diet.
Sounds like the shitty western diet, lack of exercise, and the resulting obesity are the primary causes at least in the US.
Yep, obesity has skyrocketed... it's not bacon. Around 40% of the usa is obese. It's the number one cause of death now.
Shitty western diet isn’t new though. Think of all the crap people ate and drank and smoked in the 1950s. They got cancer, but not early colorectal cancer in these numbers.
Well i haven't read the article but on principle you can make many things sound more or less dramatic than they might actually be with percentages. If there were 3 people with colon cancer per year (random figure) and now there are 18 that is 500% more, but may as well be a statistic outlier.
That being said I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be either or both. Microplastics are everywhere, we can only hope they dont fuck with our biological processes in irreversible ways (like causing infertility).
That could be the case with extremely rare diseases, but sadly that’s not the case here.
Probably faulty to look for a singular causal factor. It’s probably a mixture of various environmental and dietary changes that have occurred over the last 10-20 years or so
Bet it's dip
amongus
i was surprised to not find something mentioning the "i eat ass on the first date" "trend" cancer causing tounges???/s