Should Hot Dogs come with a Warning Label for rectal & colon cancer?

With all the recent research linking not just Hot Dogs, but all processed meats (this included bacon and so-called prepackaged "lunch meats" as well) to colon and rectal cancers, many in the health profession are trying to find ways to make the public more aware at the risk: simply eating a processed meat once a day can increase your risk of colo-rectal cancers of up to 20%. 

A provocative billboard will warn baseball fans flocking to the All-Star Game at Kauffman Stadium on July 10 that eating hot dogs can greatly increase their risk of colorectal cancer. The billboard, sponsored by the nonprofit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, reads "Warning: Hot Dogs Can Strike You Out—For Good,” and directs readers to www.PCRM.org. The billboard features an image of hot dogs jammed into a cigarette pack labeled "Unlucky Strikes," and is located at the exit ramp to Kauffman Stadium on I-435 one mile south of I-70. PCRM has also written a letter to Jim Rowland, executive director of the Jackson County Sport Complex Authority, which owns and operates Kauffman Stadium, asking him to require warning labels on all hot dogs served at Kauffman Stadium. The label would read: “Warning: Hot Dogs and Other Processed Meats Increase the Risk of Colon and Rectal Cancer.” "Hot dogs can cause cancer, and like cigarettes they should come with a warning label,” says PCRM chief medical officer Ulka Agarwal, M.D. “Just one hot dog a day increases a person’s colorectal cancer risk by 21 percent. Add to that other processed meats people could be eating daily, like bacon, pepperoni, and sausage, and the health risk multiplies.” Hot dogs are popular eats at ballparks, and this season fans are expected to chow down on 20.5 million hot dogs as they watch the games, according to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council. At Kauffman Stadium 8,000 hot dogs were sold on the day of this year’s opening game alone. Offerings at the stadium for the All-Star game will include such unhealthy eats as Royal Blue Dog, a hot dog topped with blue cheese and bacon, which is also a processed meat, and the All-Star BBQ Dog, a hot dog topped with pulled pork and coleslaw. Missouri has one of the highest colorectal cancer rates in the country. Every year, nearly 3,200 Missouri residents are diagnosed with colorectal cancer and 1,200 die of it.

Consuming processed meats increases the risk of colorectal cancer, according to a large number of studies, including the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study. A study from the Harvard School of Public Health says that a daily serving of processed meats, like one hot dog, sausage, or a few bacon strips, increases the risk of premature death by 20 percent.

Eating red & processed meats = 20% greater risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer.

New studies show a link between red meat and cancer, cardiovascular disease. 

Eating red meat is associated with a sharply increased risk of death from cancer and heart disease, according to a new study, and the more of it you eat, the greater the risk.

The analysis, published online Monday in Archives of Internal Medicine, used data from two studies that involved 121,342 men and women who filled out questionnaires about health and diet from 1980 through 2006. There were 23,926 deaths in the group, including 5,910 from cardiovascular disease and 9,464 from cancer.

People who ate more red meat were less physically active and more likely to smoke and had a higher body mass index, researchers found. Still, after controlling for those and other variables, they found that each daily increase of three ounces of red meat was associated with a 12 percent greater risk of dying over all, including a 16 percent greater risk of cardiovascular death and a 10 percent greater risk of cancer death.

The increased risks linked to processed meat, like bacon, were even greater: 20 percent over all, 21 percent for cardiovascular disease and 16 percent for cancer.

If people in the study had eaten half as much meat, the researchers estimated, deaths in the group would have declined 9.3 percent in men and 7.6 percent in women.

Previous studies have linked red meat consumption and mortality, but the new results suggest a surprisingly strong link.

“When you have these numbers in front of you, it’s pretty staggering,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Frank B. Hu, a professor of medicine at Harvard

Read the original article here: 
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/health/research/red-meat-linked-to-cancer-and-heart-disease.html?_r=1&ref=science