Indulging in bacon too frequently may
be hazardous to your health, a new study
suggests, while taking the skin off your
chicken before you cook it might not be
so good for you either.
Dr. Dominique S. Michaud of the Harvard
School of Public Health in Boston and
her colleagues found that people who ate
bacon five times a week or more were nearly
60-percent more likely to develop bladder
cancer, while those who ate skinless chicken
this frequently had a 52-percent greater
risk of the disease.
Some meat products contain nitrosamines,
which are known to cause bladder cancer,
Michaud and her team note in their report,
published in the American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition. But the studies that have attempted
to investigate the meat-bladder cancer
link have been small and most have not
separated out the effects of different
types of meat.
To better understand the relationship,
Michaud and her team looked at data for
47,422 men and 88,471 women participating
in the Health Professionals Follow-Up
Study and the Nurse's Health Study, respectively.
Participants were followed for up to 22
years, during which time 808 developed
bladder cancer.
People who ate bacon and other processed
meats frequently were also more likely
to smoke and to take in more fat and fewer
vitamins, the researchers found. They
were also less likely to exercise.
The association between the total meat
consumption and bladder cancer was not
statistically significant. But those who
ate bacon five or more times per week
were 59-percent more likely to develop
bladder cancer than those who never did.
Also, men and women who ate chicken this
often were 52-percent more likely to develop
bladder cancer than those who never ate
skinless chicken.
Compared with skinless chicken, cooked
chicken with skin is known to contain
a smaller amount of heterocyclic amines,
carcinogenic compounds that form when
meat is cooked at high temperatures, the
researchers note.
The researchers suggest that nitrosamines,
heterocyclic amines, or both are responsible
for the health effects of bacon seen in
the current study, but they note that
their findings must be confirmed by other
research teams before any conclusions
can be made.
SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition, November 2006.
