Study: Bacon May Boost Cancer Risk in Latinos

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The University of Southern California (USC) published some big results in 2016.

They found that Latinas who eat processed meats, like lunch meat, bacon, and sausage, may have an increased risk for breast cancer; however, this association was not found among white women.

According to Mariana Stern, senior author, director of graduate programs in molecular epidemiology, and an associate professor in the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC:

“Few studies look at breast cancer risk factors specific to Latinas. Our focus was to understand if meat consumption is associated with breast cancer and whether there are differences between Latinas and white women. To our knowledge, this is the first study that has looked at meat intake among Latinas.”

Eating red meat also has been linked to cancer.

And in 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that eating processed meats, such as bacon, hot dogs, and ham could cause colorectal cancer – the second most commonly diagnosed cancer in Latinos.

Although the increased risk may not be sky-high, according to a study.

“It said our overall lifetime risk of developing colon cancer is 5%, and if we eat the amount of processed meat they were talking in the study, which was 50 grams or more, that increased our risk to 6%, so it really isn’t that high,” said registered dietician nutritionist Angie Murad in an interview. “And there are other things that contribute like genetics our overall quality of diet.”