The World Health Organization’s gloomy new report saying that bacon, hot dogs, sausage and other processed meat causes colorectal cancer was called a bunch of baloney by the meat industry. But dietitians and cancer experts had nothing but praise for it.

In the most comprehensive pronouncement yet on the relation between our modern meat-eating lifestyles and cancer, the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, analyzed decades of research and for the first time put processed meat in the same danger category as smoking or breathing in asbestos.

The report, released Monday, doesn’t mean that woofing down an Oscar Mayer wiener is as bad as smoking a pack of Marlboros — only that there’s a confirmed link to cancer. And even then, the risk is small.

Overall, the lifetime risk of developing colorectal cancer in the U.S. is about 1 in 20, or 5 percent, according to the American Cancer Society. And by WHO’s calculations, having a cold-cut sandwich every day would only raise that to around 6 percent.

The researchers said all other red meat is “probably carcinogenic.”

WHO defined processed meat as anything transformed to improve its flavor or preserve it, including sausages, beef jerky and anything smoked. They defined red meat to include beef, veal, pork, lamb, mutton, horse and goat.

While triggering angst in cafeterias all over the world, the report is consistent with what the American Cancer Society, the World Cancer Research Fund, the American Institute for Cancer Research and many dietitians have been recommending for over a decade.

The North American Meat Institute argued in a statement issued Monday that “cancer is a complex disease not caused by single foods.” And independent experts stressed that the WHO findings should be kept in perspective.

“We’re not saying never eat a hamburger,” said Stanford dietitian Raymond Palko, who advises patients treated at the Stanford Cancer Center. “Just reduce the amount of red or processed meat — and replace it with brightly colored fruits and vegetables.”

Palko has been telling his cancer patients for years: Save ham, bacon and sausage for special occasions. Don’t eat more than six small servings of red meat a week.

Most dietitians and cancer organizations favor fish, poultry or beans over processed and red meat.

The recommended portion size for those who choose to eat red meat is 18 ounces a week. Imagine six slabs of tri-tip, each about the size of your palm. Or four quarter-pound Big Macs. It’s hardly deprivation, the cancer groups point out.

The groups also recommend preparing meat by baking or broiling it, rather than frying or charbroiling, to reduce the formation of carcinogens during the cooking process.

At the famed Niman Ranch in Bolinas, whose pastures are dotted with 170 organic grass-fed Black Angus cattle, Nicolette Hahn Niman will continue to feed her family small daily servings of homegrown beef. In addition to ranch work, she also bikes, runs, swims and eats large amounts of fruits and vegetables from Niman’s own garden.

Criticizing the study, Niman said “correlation is not causation.”

Niman, an attorney and author of the 2014 book “Defending Beef,” noted that people who eat large amounts of processed meats also tend to be overweight, inactive and have other cancer-causing risks.

In contrast, Niman said, moderate meat-eating cultures, such as the Masai of eastern Africa, rarely get cancer.

The problem, she said, may be what is in most meats. “The U.S. is routinely using additives,” she said. “That doesn’t mean that meat itself is unhealthy.”

Similarly, butcher Mark Bubert, of Los Altos, blames “low grade stuff.” His store, Dittmer’s, which sells more than three dozen kinds of sausage from recipes his family brought from Germany, uses only natural meats — no hormones, antibiotics or growth inhibitors — from a small family farm in Orland.

“They’re not slop-fed,” he said. “They’re not from a huge factory farm in the Midwest.”

In Pittsburg, Ben Miyaki said he’ll continue to enjoy — in moderation — his samples from the “Bacon Of The Month Club.”

“I like the flavor of bacon, especially hickory and jalapeo — and the thick slices, not the paper slices,” Miyaki said. “I don’t eat a lot — just once or twice a week — but it’s something I look forward to.”

So red and processed meat — albeit in smaller portions — will continue to inspire him, as well as devotees of Chicago’s Bacon Fest, Minnesota’s Spam Museum and pepperoni pizzas all over the world.

“This is a watershed moment — I’m glad the World Health Organization is adopting and bringing it forward,” Stanford’s Palko said. “But the dose makes the poison.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Lisa M. Krieger at 650-492-4098. Follow her at Twitter.com/LisaMKrieger and Facebook.com/Lisa M. Krieger.

The World Health Organization’s gloomy new report saying that bacon, hot dogs, sausage and other processed meat causes colorectal cancer was called a bunch of baloney by the meat industry. But dietitians and cancer experts had nothing but praise for it.

In the most comprehensive pronouncement yet on the relation between our modern meat-eating lifestyles and cancer, the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, analyzed decades of research and for the first time put processed meat in the same danger category as smoking or breathing in asbestos.

The report, released Monday, doesn’t mean that woofing down an Oscar Mayer wiener is as bad as smoking a pack of Marlboros — only that there’s a confirmed link to cancer. And even then, the risk is small.

Overall, the lifetime risk of developing colorectal cancer in the U.S. is about 1 in 20, or 5 percent, according to the American Cancer Society. And by WHO’s calculations, having a cold-cut sandwich every day would only raise that to around 6 percent.

The researchers said all other red meat is “probably carcinogenic.”

WHO defined processed meat as anything transformed to improve its flavor or preserve it, including sausages, beef jerky and anything smoked. They defined red meat to include beef, veal, pork, lamb, mutton, horse and goat.

While triggering angst in cafeterias all over the world, the report is consistent with what the American Cancer Society, the World Cancer Research Fund, the American Institute for Cancer Research and many dietitians have been recommending for over a decade.

The North American Meat Institute argued in a statement issued Monday that “cancer is a complex disease not caused by single foods.” And independent experts stressed that the WHO findings should be kept in perspective.

“We’re not saying never eat a hamburger,” said Stanford dietitian Raymond Palko, who advises patients treated at the Stanford Cancer Center. “Just reduce the amount of red or processed meat — and replace it with brightly colored fruits and vegetables.”

Palko has been telling his cancer patients for years: Save ham, bacon and sausage for special occasions. Don’t eat more than six small servings of red meat a week.

Most dietitians and cancer organizations favor fish, poultry or beans over processed and red meat.

The recommended portion size for those who choose to eat red meat is 18 ounces a week. Imagine six slabs of tri-tip, each about the size of your palm. Or four quarter-pound Big Macs. It’s hardly deprivation, the cancer groups point out.

The groups also recommend preparing meat by baking or broiling it, rather than frying or charbroiling, to reduce the formation of carcinogens during the cooking process.

At the famed Niman Ranch in Bolinas, whose pastures are dotted with 170 organic grass-fed Black Angus cattle, Nicolette Hahn Niman will continue to feed her family small daily servings of homegrown beef. In addition to ranch work, she also bikes, runs, swims and eats large amounts of fruits and vegetables from Niman’s own garden.

Criticizing the study, Niman said “correlation is not causation.”

Niman, an attorney and author of the 2014 book “Defending Beef,” noted that people who eat large amounts of processed meats also tend to be overweight, inactive and have other cancer-causing risks.

In contrast, Niman said, moderate meat-eating cultures, such as the Masai of eastern Africa, rarely get cancer.

The problem, she said, may be what is in most meats. “The U.S. is routinely using additives,” she said. “That doesn’t mean that meat itself is unhealthy.”

Similarly, butcher Mark Bubert, of Los Altos, blames “low grade stuff.” His store, Dittmer’s, which sells more than three dozen kinds of sausage from recipes his family brought from Germany, uses only natural meats — no hormones, antibiotics or growth inhibitors — from a small family farm in Orland.

“They’re not slop-fed,” he said. “They’re not from a huge factory farm in the Midwest.”

In Pittsburg, Ben Miyaki said he’ll continue to enjoy — in moderation — his samples from the “Bacon Of The Month Club.”

“I like the flavor of bacon, especially hickory and jalapeo — and the thick slices, not the paper slices,” Miyaki said. “I don’t eat a lot — just once or twice a week — but it’s something I look forward to.”

So red and processed meat — albeit in smaller portions — will continue to inspire him, as well as devotees of Chicago’s Bacon Fest, Minnesota’s Spam Museum and pepperoni pizzas all over the world.

“This is a watershed moment — I’m glad the World Health Organization is adopting and bringing it forward,” Stanford’s Palko said. “But the dose makes the poison.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Lisa M. Krieger at 650-492-4098. Follow her at Twitter.com/LisaMKrieger and Facebook.com/Lisa M. Krieger.

The World Health Organization’s gloomy new report saying that bacon, hot dogs, sausage and other processed meat causes colorectal cancer was called a bunch of baloney by the meat industry. But dietitians and cancer experts had nothing but praise for it.

In the most comprehensive pronouncement yet on the relation between our modern meat-eating lifestyles and cancer, the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, analyzed decades of research and for the first time put processed meat in the same danger category as smoking or breathing in asbestos.

The report, released Monday, doesn’t mean that woofing down an Oscar Mayer wiener is as bad as smoking a pack of Marlboros — only that there’s a confirmed link to cancer. And even then, the risk is small.

Overall, the lifetime risk of developing colorectal cancer in the U.S. is about 1 in 20, or 5 percent, according to the American Cancer Society. And by WHO’s calculations, having a cold-cut sandwich every day would only raise that to around 6 percent.

The researchers said all other red meat is “probably carcinogenic.”

WHO defined processed meat as anything transformed to improve its flavor or preserve it, including sausages, beef jerky and anything smoked. They defined red meat to include beef, veal, pork, lamb, mutton, horse and goat.

While triggering angst in cafeterias all over the world, the report is consistent with what the American Cancer Society, the World Cancer Research Fund, the American Institute for Cancer Research and many dietitians have been recommending for over a decade.

The North American Meat Institute argued in a statement issued Monday that “cancer is a complex disease not caused by single foods.” And independent experts stressed that the WHO findings should be kept in perspective.

“We’re not saying never eat a hamburger,” said Stanford dietitian Raymond Palko, who advises patients treated at the Stanford Cancer Center. “Just reduce the amount of red or processed meat — and replace it with brightly colored fruits and vegetables.”

Palko has been telling his cancer patients for years: Save ham, bacon and sausage for special occasions. Don’t eat more than six small servings of red meat a week.

Most dietitians and cancer organizations favor fish, poultry or beans over processed and red meat.

The recommended portion size for those who choose to eat red meat is 18 ounces a week. Imagine six slabs of tri-tip, each about the size of your palm. Or four quarter-pound Big Macs. It’s hardly deprivation, the cancer groups point out.

The groups also recommend preparing meat by baking or broiling it, rather than frying or charbroiling, to reduce the formation of carcinogens during the cooking process.

At the famed Niman Ranch in Bolinas, whose pastures are dotted with 170 organic grass-fed Black Angus cattle, Nicolette Hahn Niman will continue to feed her family small daily servings of homegrown beef. In addition to ranch work, she also bikes, runs, swims and eats large amounts of fruits and vegetables from Niman’s own garden.

Criticizing the study, Niman said “correlation is not causation.”

Niman, an attorney and author of the 2014 book “Defending Beef,” noted that people who eat large amounts of processed meats also tend to be overweight, inactive and have other cancer-causing risks.

In contrast, Niman said, moderate meat-eating cultures, such as the Masai of eastern Africa, rarely get cancer.

The problem, she said, may be what is in most meats. “The U.S. is routinely using additives,” she said. “That doesn’t mean that meat itself is unhealthy.”

Similarly, butcher Mark Bubert, of Los Altos, blames “low grade stuff.” His store, Dittmer’s, which sells more than three dozen kinds of sausage from recipes his family brought from Germany, uses only natural meats — no hormones, antibiotics or growth inhibitors — from a small family farm in Orland.

“They’re not slop-fed,” he said. “They’re not from a huge factory farm in the Midwest.”

In Pittsburg, Ben Miyaki said he’ll continue to enjoy — in moderation — his samples from the “Bacon Of The Month Club.”

“I like the flavor of bacon, especially hickory and jalapeo — and the thick slices, not the paper slices,” Miyaki said. “I don’t eat a lot — just once or twice a week — but it’s something I look forward to.”

So red and processed meat — albeit in smaller portions — will continue to inspire him, as well as devotees of Chicago’s Bacon Fest, Minnesota’s Spam Museum and pepperoni pizzas all over the world.

“This is a watershed moment — I’m glad the World Health Organization is adopting and bringing it forward,” Stanford’s Palko said. “But the dose makes the poison.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Lisa M. Krieger at 650-492-4098. Follow her at Twitter.com/LisaMKrieger and Facebook.com/Lisa M. Krieger.

The World Health Organization’s gloomy new report saying that bacon, hot dogs, sausage and other processed meat causes colorectal cancer was called a bunch of baloney by the meat industry. But dietitians and cancer experts had nothing but praise for it.

In the most comprehensive pronouncement yet on the relation between our modern meat-eating lifestyles and cancer, the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, analyzed decades of research and for the first time put processed meat in the same danger category as smoking or breathing in asbestos.

The report, released Monday, doesn’t mean that woofing down an Oscar Mayer wiener is as bad as smoking a pack of Marlboros — only that there’s a confirmed link to cancer. And even then, the risk is small.

Overall, the lifetime risk of developing colorectal cancer in the U.S. is about 1 in 20, or 5 percent, according to the American Cancer Society. And by WHO’s calculations, having a cold-cut sandwich every day would only raise that to around 6 percent.

The researchers said all other red meat is “probably carcinogenic.”

WHO defined processed meat as anything transformed to improve its flavor or preserve it, including sausages, beef jerky and anything smoked. They defined red meat to include beef, veal, pork, lamb, mutton, horse and goat.

While triggering angst in cafeterias all over the world, the report is consistent with what the American Cancer Society, the World Cancer Research Fund, the American Institute for Cancer Research and many dietitians have been recommending for over a decade.

The North American Meat Institute argued in a statement issued Monday that “cancer is a complex disease not caused by single foods.” And independent experts stressed that the WHO findings should be kept in perspective.

“We’re not saying never eat a hamburger,” said Stanford dietitian Raymond Palko, who advises patients treated at the Stanford Cancer Center. “Just reduce the amount of red or processed meat — and replace it with brightly colored fruits and vegetables.”

Palko has been telling his cancer patients for years: Save ham, bacon and sausage for special occasions. Don’t eat more than six small servings of red meat a week.

Most dietitians and cancer organizations favor fish, poultry or beans over processed and red meat.

The recommended portion size for those who choose to eat red meat is 18 ounces a week. Imagine six slabs of tri-tip, each about the size of your palm. Or four quarter-pound Big Macs. It’s hardly deprivation, the cancer groups point out.

The groups also recommend preparing meat by baking or broiling it, rather than frying or charbroiling, to reduce the formation of carcinogens during the cooking process.

At the famed Niman Ranch in Bolinas, whose pastures are dotted with 170 organic grass-fed Black Angus cattle, Nicolette Hahn Niman will continue to feed her family small daily servings of homegrown beef. In addition to ranch work, she also bikes, runs, swims and eats large amounts of fruits and vegetables from Niman’s own garden.

Criticizing the study, Niman said “correlation is not causation.”

Niman, an attorney and author of the 2014 book “Defending Beef,” noted that people who eat large amounts of processed meats also tend to be overweight, inactive and have other cancer-causing risks.

In contrast, Niman said, moderate meat-eating cultures, such as the Masai of eastern Africa, rarely get cancer.

The problem, she said, may be what is in most meats. “The U.S. is routinely using additives,” she said. “That doesn’t mean that meat itself is unhealthy.”

Similarly, butcher Mark Bubert, of Los Altos, blames “low grade stuff.” His store, Dittmer’s, which sells more than three dozen kinds of sausage from recipes his family brought from Germany, uses only natural meats — no hormones, antibiotics or growth inhibitors — from a small family farm in Orland.

“They’re not slop-fed,” he said. “They’re not from a huge factory farm in the Midwest.”

In Pittsburg, Ben Miyaki said he’ll continue to enjoy — in moderation — his samples from the “Bacon Of The Month Club.”

“I like the flavor of bacon, especially hickory and jalapeo — and the thick slices, not the paper slices,” Miyaki said. “I don’t eat a lot — just once or twice a week — but it’s something I look forward to.”

So red and processed meat — albeit in smaller portions — will continue to inspire him, as well as devotees of Chicago’s Bacon Fest, Minnesota’s Spam Museum and pepperoni pizzas all over the world.

“This is a watershed moment — I’m glad the World Health Organization is adopting and bringing it forward,” Stanford’s Palko said. “But the dose makes the poison.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Lisa M. Krieger at 650-492-4098. Follow her at Twitter.com/LisaMKrieger and Facebook.com/Lisa M. Krieger.