Bacon-mania

I was living in Burlington when a story came out about the toxicity of a chemical used in hair dye. A study showed that whatever it was, was leaching into the scalp and possibly causing harm. Grey-haired women of a certain age let out a silent scream and ran to health food stores, looking for natural alternatives. 

I popped into the beauty supply store in my neighbourhood to ask what they thought of it. I barely got the start of the sentence out of my mouth and the employee went medieval on me. She overreacted to such a degree that I backed out slowly, suddenly aware of how many pairs of scissors were within her reach. It was obvious that she had been asked about the study all day, and felt her livelihood was under attack. 

This must be how the executives at Maple Leaf and Schneiders are feeling right now about bacon. 

Unless you’ve been living in a remote outpost for the past couple of weeks, you’ve heard that the World Health Organization is now classifying processed meat as a carcinogen, alongside cigarettes and asbestos. “Not my bacon!”, cried lovers of the fatty, salted meat. “There is hope”, thought pigs the world over. 

The truth is, you’d have to eat an awful lot of bacon to get cancer. It’s like almost anything else; once in a while isn’t going to kill you. I posted a link to the New York Post’s sensible analysis of the WHO announcement on social media and it was shared more times than a recipe for bacon…anything. If you missed it, here’s the link. And if you love bacon, relax. As long as it’s not the thing you eat the most, there’s little to worry about.

BACON

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