Guild of Fine Food Slams Latest Health-Based Food Research

September 1, 2009

Bob Farrand at the Guild of Fine Food, the UK trade association for producers of quality local, regional and speciality food and drink, speaks out against charity advice to avoid processed meat.

Bob Farrand: stop scaremongering

The month of silly newspaper stories is upon us as scaremongerers and panic merchants grab the headlines. We’ve just been told that the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) wants us to limit the amount of processed meat we eat because research has revealed it increases the risk of developing cancer. In particular, the WCRF wants children to be protected from culinary horrors such as ham and salami and encouraged to eat fish, low-fat cheese, hummus and small amounts of lean meat.

The charity further wants parents to avoid giving their children high-fat or high-calorie foods and sugary drinks in packed lunch boxes. Marni Craze, the charity's children’s education manager, is reported in the Guardian (17 August) as saying: “If children have processed meat in their lunch box every day then over the course of a school year they will be eating quite a lot of it. It is better if children learn to view processed meat as an occasional treat if it is eaten at all.”

The most charitable thing these people can do is to shut up. They clearly have little or no understanding of food, diet or the impact it has on us. What exactly do they mean by ‘processed meat’ any way and where’s the evidence to support their findings?

Ham and salami have been with us for at least two thousand years. In Mediterranean areas, where almost every meal begins with a plate of so-called ‘processed meats,’ they also eat stacks of full fat cheese, fish and fresh fruit and vegetables. In many communities, they also quaff the thick end of a litre of red wine a day. Many, if not most, live longer than we do because balanced eating is a habit passed from generation to generation.

Ms Craze needs to stop scare mongering and spend a little more time studying complete diets rather than individual foods and encouraging the population at large that the only bad food is cheap, nasty mass produced stuff.

Good food costs a little more but, in moderation, it’s all healthy and we don’t need to eat so much of because it satisfies better.