Cut back on the full Irish
The recent headlines warning of a possible link between processed meat, including bacon and sausages, and pancreatic cancer left a bitter taste for people who like their full Irish breakfast.
Pancreatic cancer caused the death of former Finance Minister Brian Lenihan last year so we are well aware of how lethal it can be.
The research indicated that eating only 50g a day, just one sausage, may raise your risk of this rare cancer by 19pc.
So how worried should people be? The first thing to remember is that pancreatic cancer is rare, so even a 19pc increase in risk would mean that a person's chance of getting the disease would still be very small.
Around 370 Irish people will be diagnosed with it this year. Most cases are found in those over 60.
The study was carried out by researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. It was published in the 'British Journal of Cancer'.
The findings were based on combined results from 11 earlier studies which included more than two million people.
Dietary research has limitations. For example, it must rely on people to remember what they eat, and researchers must account for the influence of other factors such as physical activity, smoking and drinking.
This study suggests that processed meats could be involved, although it cannot conclusively prove that this is the case.
While the link between processed meat and pancreatic cancer is not conclusive, eating high levels of red and processed meat is not advised.
These foods are often high in saturated fat and salt.
Due to their calorific content and a suspected link to bowel cancer, the advice is to not eat more than than 90g of red or processed meat a day.
Originally published in
