Episode 84 : Why ham is now classified as a Group 1 carcinogen?

Episode 84 : Why ham is now classified as a Group 1 carcinogen ?

In this episode, I unpack the recent World Health Organization classification of processed meats and what it actually means for you and your family. After discussing this on Channel Seven’s Sunrise, the response was immediate. Parents were confused and wanted clarity.

Links:
https://nourishwithkarina.com/feedingbabies
https://nourishwithkarina.com/membership

Highlights:

Why Ham is Classified as a Group One Carcinogen (00:00.81)
Beyond the Ham Sandwich Rethinking Processed Meats (04:44.206)
The Nitrate Problem and Your Health Risk (07:04.001)
The Hidden Risks of Processed Meats (09:18.296)
The Italian Secret and Healthy Swaps (11:43.948)
Five Healthy Swaps for the School Lunchbox (14:03.32)
One Small Win for Your Child’s Health (16:24.918)
Small Swaps for Big Health Wins (18:45.696)

Show notes

READ TRANSCRIPT

Show Notes

So today, I break it down properly.

We talk through the evidence, the real cancer risk data. Most importantly, I give you simple, realistic swaps using nutritious foods that are budget-friendly and practical for busy families.

Five highlights from this episode:

What “Group 1 Carcinogen” Actually Means
The 50 Gram Rule
What Makes Processed Meat Risky and whether Nitrate Free is OK?
Why Frequency Matters for Children
Five Practical Sandwich Swaps

If you’re supporting a picky eater or working towards better nutrition for fussy eaters, this episode gives you clarity and action.

Show notes and links:

5 Days To Healthier Kids Challenge https://learn.nourishwithkarina.com/offers/YRVoTAD9/checkout

Healthy kids recipes: https://nourishwithkarina.com/healthy-recipes-for-kids

Feeding Kids Reset: https://nourishwithkarina.com/3weeks

Connect with me: https://nourishwithkarina.com

Why Ham is Classified as a Group One Carcinogen (00:00.81)
You're listening to the Easy Feed Podcast, episode number 84. Why ham is now classified as a group one carcinogen. Hi there. I'm Karina Savage. And with over 20 years experience feeding children, including my own, I've learned all the secrets that busy moms need to get their children eating better and actually enjoying healthy foods. So a huge welcome to the Easy Feed Podcast. Welcome back.

I hope you're really well. It's great to have you here for another episode of the easy feed. Today I am talking about a topic that we discussed on channel seven sunrise recently in relation to ham and processed meats and why processed meats are really recommended to be very much limited or avoided in the diet these days based on the world health organizations classification of processed meats being in group one.

meaning it is the highest risk of being carcinogenic out of any other foods. And this sits above red meat. We have heard in the past the risk of red meat, but it's actually processed foods sit above red meat in the classification in relation to risk of developing cancer. And this is really related to those individuals who are consuming these processed meats regularly. So

This is certainly stirred up some conversation. I'll have to say that I posted the recording of our channel seven segment on social media and a TikTok, especially the comments have been going wild in terms of what, what's wrong with ham. And then some people have said, you know, well, it's not actually the ham, it's the processing. And some people have said, well, what's, what, what about, you know, smoking and you know, all of those other cancer causing.

lifestyle behaviours. So it's been really interesting to watch those comments and discussions and certainly has hit a pain point with a lot of people who enjoy processed meats. So today I want to debunk some of the myths, some of the confusion and explain what that World Health Organization classification actually means. Because HAM does fit into that group one classification of processed meats.

The Truth About Ham and Cancer Risk (02:26.062)
And the reason is because it is produced the same way. So ham is produced in a very similar way to the other processed meats like salami and Frankfurt's. It is smoked, it is cured, it is often treated with preservatives. It has the heme iron. So there's all of the properties of the other processed meats that increase the risk of it being cancerous. Now, this isn't to say that if you eat ham today, you're going to get cancer tomorrow. No, no, no, no.

It, what it's saying is that eating ham and processed meats on a regular basis. And by that, they mean, you know, most days and the higher the consumption, the increased risks. I think it was for every 50 grams extra of processed meats, which is about two slices of ham. Every extra 50 grams that you eat daily increases your risk further by 17%. So what they've studied is they've studied hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of big.

population-based studies. So this is like millions of people that have studied and what they've found. So the thing that was actually over 400 studies used in this report and what they found is that there was a significant correlation, strong evidence. So they've done all the statistics and analysis and they found strong evidence to suggest that those people who consume processed meats on a daily basis, on a regular basis,

do have an increased risk of cancer, especially bowel cancer. Now, stomach cancer is in there as well, but bowel cancer was the number one. And that is why ham and processed meats are now in that group one classification. Look, it doesn't mean that ham is the most cancer causing thing in the world or salami is the most cancer causing thing or bacon, because that's another big one that's in that processed meats category. It doesn't mean that they are the worst things.

in terms of cancer risk, because we know that there's many other factors that significantly increase your risk of developing cancer, such as high alcohol consumption, smoking, being overweight or obese, especially obese, not moving, having really unhealthy lifestyle patterns, eating a lot of processed foods and very little whole foods, and also ultraviolet radiation, so melanoma.

Beyond the Ham Sandwich Rethinking Processed Meats (04:44.206)
So there's a lot of factors that will contribute to increased risk of developing cancer, but the processed meats have really had a light shone upon them over recent times just because of all of the evidence that's stacked up against them. So it doesn't mean that you can never have a piece of ham or bacon, but it really is about limiting your intake as much as possible and swapping it out for healthier options. And I did go through all of those on my Channel 7 Sunrise segment the other week.

But we'll talk about some of those a little later because this is important. Kids love a ham sandwich. a lot of kids love a ham sandwich. And I grew up, you know, you'd go to your local butcher and it'd give you a piece of Devon or Fritz, depending on what state you live in. And you know, that was just a part of life. But now I would certainly think twice about saying yes to one from the butcher because it's just not great for our kids. Okay. It's not great for us at all. And the thing is with kids.

We are developing their taste buds for life. And so the foods that we're giving them now, they are becoming familiar with. They are more likely to eat these foods as an adult. So we have to be really intentional with the foods that we are regularly giving our kids. And I think this is the bottom line. It's about what they're having regularly. And if they are having bacon regularly in the morning and ham regularly in the day and frank, the sausages or salami regularly in the evening.

then you do need to reconsider that. And I know that the cost of living has increased and food has increased in terms of its prices, but there are definitely healthier swaps that you can make that are even cheaper than processed meats that are going to make the world of difference to your child's health. And this is a lot of what I talk about in my private group. I talk a lot about it in my program, the Feeding Kids Reset, because there's small intentional ways that we can make a big difference to your child's life.

And you just have to start somewhere. Okay. But really at the end of the day, knowledge is power. Being aware of it is the first step. And then you can start making intentional swaps that's going to make a big difference to your child's life and also your health. Cause you know, your risk is there too, right? So what is it about ham and processed meats that do make them potentially harmful? Well, to start off with, it's the curing process. It's the preservative used, usually sodium nitrate or some form of nitrates.

The Nitrate Problem and Your Health Risk (07:04.001)
which are a problem. Okay. So they have been linked to creating carcinogenic compounds in the body. So what happens is when we eat these preservatives, they can change things on the inside at a cellular level and create carcinogenic compounds forming. That's how it happens. It's not like we're ingesting cancer compounds, but what happens is inside they make changes to our body.

they can change cells and make changes for the worse that increases the risk of these carcinogenic compounds forming. And I think the important thing here is to say risk. It's not to say that they will definitely do that. It's to say that there's an increased risk of these things happening. And that's why some people prefer to buy a nitrate free hand. Now it's not easy to find and it's not readily accessible.

And even when you go to the butcher and you know, buy leg ham, I was actually having this conversation with one of the parents inside my private chat group the other day. And it was like, well, how do we know? And I said, well, you actually don't know unless you ask the butcher, unless they advertise it as nitrate free ham. We've got a local butcher who literally there's a sign out the front of his shop saying it's the best ham in the suburb. And it may well be, but I don't know if it's nitrate free. He certainly doesn't spook it as nitrate free.

And it's probably not cheap either. So again, you just have to be really intentional with your purchasing. So it does make me rethink a whole lot of decisions around, you know, Christmas time as well. Although Christmas time, I mean, I don't buy ham. If you've been with me for a while, you know how much I can't stand, especially the pig farming industry and the cruelty that goes on there. So I just do not buy ham for that reason.

But if you're having ham, you know, at Christmas time, and that was the only time of the year that you were buying ham or bacon, then your risk is obviously, you know, nothing. But if you are hap- well, that's unless you eat, you know, bacon and salami the rest of the year. But if you are having it regularly, obviously that's when the risk goes up. So anyway, back to the, the underlying causes. So the preservative used is one of the risk factors. And if you buy nitrate free ham, you do eliminate that one risk factor.

The Hidden Risks of Processed Meats (09:18.296)
But then there's other risk factors to do with the processing of the processed meat. Okay. So it's processed meat, so it gets highly processed and it's often heat treated at really high temperatures, which can again, change the molecules and increase the risk of these carcinogenic compounds forming inside your body. The smoking process can also increase the risk of these carcinogenic compounds forming. So that's the second one. And then the third one is they all contain heme iron.

Now, heme iron is also in red meat and that is one of the factors that associates red meat with an increased risk of bowel cancer as well. So the heme iron in the processed meat is another factor for that increased risk of these carcinogenic compounds forming. So nitrate free ham sort of ticks one of the boxes, but not the other two. So it is still an increased risk of being a carcinogenic food in children and adults who consume them regularly. And that's really the bottom line here.

I don't want to scare Munger and say, you know, can never have a piece of ham again. Although unless if you worried about animal ethics and you wouldn't, if you knew what, if you knew what goes on in Australia, my God, it's horrific. So that's an aside, but it's the regularity that really increases your risk. And you also need to remember that these foods are really high in salt, often saturated fat. And so then you think cholesterol, blood pressure,

So there's other lifestyle factors that it's actually hindering as well. So it may raise cholesterol if you're having a lot of bacon or salami. It may increase blood pressure in adults if you're having a lot of these high salt products. So just be mindful of your consumption of processed meats. And after listening to this podcast episode, I want you to have a think about one intentional way that you can swap out a processed meat for a healthier option. It's funny, you know, because I went for a walk with my friend yesterday and we were chatting about

You know, recent sunrise segment and ham and she's originally from Argentina. And she was like, I just really feel like some, you know, I think she said pastrami. was one of the finely sliced deli meats. And then she was like, no, I should join the dots. I'm like, you know, it's, if it's fitting with a mainly cause she eats pretty well, like a really healthy balanced lifestyle. It's not going to be as much of an issue if you're having it here and there.

The Italian Secret and Healthy Swaps (11:43.948)
And we talked about the fact that over there and over in my nonna and nonna, like, know, half of my family's from Italy. You know, they have a lot more deli meats over there because I was talking to her. was like, it made me think back to when I was growing up because my mom serves them, you know, whenever she's entertaining, she's always does the prosciutto and ham and whatnot. But as I was talking to my friend yesterday, I said to her, yeah, but

the Italians and Europeans and probably the Argentinians as well. The Argentinians eat a lot of meat. I'm sure they eat a lot of veggies too, especially the Italians, because that's what I could draw on, because that's what I know. They eat so many vegetables and plant foods and they really revere their vegetables. So they put a lot of beautiful olive oil and they put a lot of love and care into their vegetables.

Italians are eating so much in the way vegetables, extra virgin olive oil. So a bit of deli meats with all of the other good stuff that's anti-inflammatory, that outweighs a little bit of deli meat. And they don't eat a whole lot of meat. They have a little bit. And then the majority of it is plant-based foods or good quality fish or other meat. But it just really made me think about the fact that here in Australia, and this is what I said to my friend, said, I feel like here,

ham gets put in the middle of a processed white roll or sandwich. And so it's kind of like processed food inside other processed food, probably put with another snack that's highly processed. So I think it's not only the processed meats, which is carcinogenic. It's also the fact that the processed food is eaten with other processed foods. And so you're kind of layering these processed foods. And I think that's another issue. It's not like the ham is eaten with all these beautiful, healthy vegetables or salads. So.

It's important just to put it in context and think about, okay, well, I am going to have a bit of deli meats, but I'm going to put it with all this other healthy stuff. Okay. So what do we do then? Okay. So to start, we just try to reduce the frequency of it and what do you swap it for? Okay. So on sunrise the other day, we talked about five different healthy swaps. So my first swap was basically the night before we'd done a barbecue for dinner and we had leftover roast chicken.

Five Healthy Swaps for the School Lunchbox (14:03.32)
pieces. So that would chicken breast pieces that I'd marinated and I use some of those in the sandwich with some lettuce mayonnaise. Okay. So that was the first substitute. So just leftover roast chicken. do roast chicken or barbecue chicken, just pop it in a sandwich. Ideally it's chicken that you've cooked yourself, but if it's rotisserie chicken, then you know, there's no judgment. It's whatever's going to work for you and your family. So that was number one. Number two was tuna.

They like tuna, could do tuna mayo, tuna lettuce. You could have tuna in a sushi roll. Tuna is another great protein swap. You could also do salmon there, like tin salmon. Tin salmon with the bones also has calcium. Third swap was baked beans. Baked beans is a great one. Also hummus, so legumes, they're a great source of protein, a great swap. Fourth one was eggs. So I shared one of my zucchini slice recipes, which is in my Healthy Kids Recipe Book. You can get that by heading to my website, nourishedwithcarina.com forward slash recipe book.

So I shared my zucchini slice because egg is a great protein for the lunchbox. Also shared boiled eggs. So boiled eggs is another one you could just pop in the lunchbox. And the fifth one I shared, which is super fun and really popular these days, especially with all the sushi trains is edamame. So edamame, my kids actually prefer them in their pods. So you can buy them in the pods where I just get the kilo pod. I actually just get them from Woolworths, but also the local IGA sells them. I'm sure Coles does too. Pretty much every supermarket does.

You buy them in the pods, they're frozen. So you buy them in the freezer section and then you pop them in your freezer at home. Now, when you're ready to serve them, we'll pop them in the lunchbox, I should say. You just take them out. You soak them in boiling water for, well, actually, no, you probably didn't even need to do that. I soak them in boiling water for 30 seconds when I'm going to serve them for dinner. But to pop them in the lunchbox, I actually don't put them in boiling water because they're going to defrost over the morning. So you literally just put them in the lunchbox as is. If you want to sprinkle a little bit of salt on, great. If not.

They eat it like that. Perfect. Edamame is a brilliant source of protein. It's also a great source of iron and calcium. So it ticks so many boxes. It's such a great option and it's really high in fiber as well. So this is really like a super food. they're my five tips, my five swaps for ham in the sandwich and really just go with what works for you on the weekends. If you're doing bacon and eggs, just try and stop the bacon. Just have eggs or

One Small Win for Your Child’s Health (16:24.918)
Swap it out for avocado and tomato and mushrooms. mean, I love mushrooms, but my kids don't, but just try and swap it out for something else. Or instead of two rashes of bacon, do one or really just stop buying it. The best thing you can do for your family is to stop swinging past the deli meat section and instead just buy olives rather than the bacon and ham and whatever. know that I'm a kill joy in that respect, but from a health perspective, you're going to be better off for it.

Again, in our private chat group, in my membership, we have discussions about like corned beef, for example, and where the corned beef is okay. Also the other deli meats like Turkey and whatnot. So if you want to know more about how you can join my private group, then head to nourishwithcarina.com forward slash three weeks, and you'll find out all of the information there. And that's three as in the number three weeks. So I think at the end of the day, it's just about being aware of.

the risk of regular consumption of these foods and really just trying to reduce the frequency or eliminating them altogether. Look, I work with a lot of vegetarians and vegans in online consultations for them or their children or their babies. So there's plenty of people that already avoid these foods, but there's plenty of people that eat a lot of them daily. And I do see children that consume processed meats multiple times daily.

And that's really the most important group to target. If you have a child who is doing that, then I would really pay attention to reducing that from multiple times a day to once a day, and then really trying to pull that back to only once or twice a week. And that's where I would land. It's not that they can never have it. And we also need to really understand that there's also these preservatives in a whole lot of other foods. It's not just in ham that has these nitrates.

There's preservatives that have also been shown to be harmful to our health in a whole host of foods. And that's another deep dive. And again, I've got all that information there in my program, the feeding kids reset, which was that same web link nourishedwithcarina.com forward slash three weeks. So at the end of the day, you've got to start somewhere and you've got to keep it simple and practical. And as I always say, one small win done consistently changes habits.

Small Swaps for Big Health Wins (18:45.696)
and makes a big difference. A like compound interest, that little addition all the time makes a big difference at the end of the week and the month and the year. any change that you can make to your child's health isn't going to be a waste of time. And often big changes seem insurmountable. So just start with one small intentional swap and you will be winning. And then action creates momentum and then you just keep going. But we're busy.

Food is expensive. So find a healthy swap. A tin of baked beans, edamame, lentils, chickpeas, hummus. That's cheaper than bacon and ham and salami. So you can actually save money if you swap to those foods. You just got to get your kids to eat them. So you got to find something that works. Or maybe you buy chicken in bulk and then you barbecue some chicken and you use that or tuna, tin tuna. So it's really about finding a plan that works for your child's taste buds.

your family's finances, your time, because people are time poor in the morning. So it has to work for you, but I've given you plenty of suggestions there to start with. And I'm really keen to see how you go. I hope this has been really helpful for you just to give you some clarity around the whole process meets world and what it means and what we should be aiming for. Please reach out to me on Instagram, Nourish with Karina or Facebook, or send me an email. Hello at nourishwithkarina.com.

I've also got some very exciting news and I will share the link for this too in the show notes. I have just released my brand newly updated Five Days To Healthier Kids Challenge. It is a free week long event. It is loaded with super helpful information from gut and immune health to fussy eating to reducing food additives to managing sugar to creating mindful eaters over the five days.

It's really manageable to get through in the week and it gives parents plenty of quick wins to help their families. So if you're interested in joining the challenge, then check out the link in the show notes. I wish you a beautiful week and I can't wait to chat with you again soon. Bye for now.