Ironically Ignored...Because it Should Be

There has been a new study surrounding the meat industry with a general conclusion that people who eat more processed meat are at a higher risk of getting cancer over time. While it’s not as drastic of an increase compared to other consumables that increase the risk of getting cancer, such as tobacco, it’s still said to have a profound effect. However, the majority of people should not start freaking out and going all out vegetarian from here on in. Humans have been eating processed meat for decades now and it’s not likely that you’ll start seeing the meat industry being restricted in federal courts on how the can advertise or sell their products, mainly because of the risk increase being very small. People who eat processed meat were recorded to have 2 times the chance of getting cancer than people who didn’t, but compared to tobacco increasing a person’s risk of cancer by 20 times it doesn’t really stack up as a complete endangerment to humans. In other words, you have just about the same risk of getting cancer as walking outside in the sun. We, as humans, try and avoid things that cause cancer for the most part (tobacco, radiation, etc.) ,but freaking out over every little thing that increases the risk of cancer just slightly is pointless. In fact, a lot of the things we need to have to survive as humans has a slight increase to the risk of cancer. The main contenders of this trait are sunlight and water, so to freak out over meats being identified as increasing the chance of getting cancer isn’t really much to worry about overall. It might cause people to eat a little less hotdogs and bacon, granted, but it most certainly is not worth everyone becoming a vegetarian. What should happen is everyone living their lives how they want to live them with this little fun fact simply tucked away in their minds, either to be forgotten or to remind them that they’re very much mortal beings.