Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by mikea1 1743 days ago
> Take sausages

Not a great example to make your point because processed meats (specifically, cured meats) are carcinogenic. [0]

> Are these now bad?

Colorectal cancer has always been bad. The difference is that we have more data now.

If you don’t change your assumptions and biases with new data, you will be stuck in the past. Blood letting would have passed the lindy test throughout the 18th century.

[0] https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2015/11/03/repo...

1 comments

> Colorectal cancer has always been bad. The difference is that we have more data now.

Your linked source claims processed meats can cause a 18% increased incidence of colorectal cancer. The CDC [0] says rates of those cancers are 36.5 per 100,000, or 0.03%. Since some of those people undoubtedly eat processed meat, lets assume the cancer rate is 0.025% for people who don't eat processed meats.

For me, those numbers really dont move the needle - its highly unlikely to get colorectal cancer and abstaining from processed meats doesnt really change the rate much at all. There are probably other good arguments in favor of not eating these foods, but cancer doesnt appear to be one of them.

[0] https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/colorectal/statistics/index.htm

If you like eating processed meat, your energy is probably better spent having good prevention around colorectal cancer than eating less processed meat.