I am a consultant physician providing integrative support to patients with cancer. Every day I see people, many of them with young families, with a new diagnosis of advanced cancer. The impact of a cancer diagnosis on these people and their loved ones is devastating. Many people are unaware of the enormous role that diet has to play in the risk of developing cancer. After smoking, obesity is the largest preventable cause of cancer in the UK, accounting for 6.3% of all cancers. With an estimated 367,000 people diagnosed with cancer in the UK every year, over 23,000 of them could have been prevented by eating a healthy diet. Processed meat consumption is associated with obesity. Processed meats such as sausages, burgers, ham, bacon, and many beef and poultry products are also classified as Group 1 carcinogens by the World Health Organization. These are the typical meat products derived from factory-farmed animals. The medical literature is very clear that processed meats cause cancer. The continued promotion of these known carcinogens to the public is the cause of untold suffering for thousands of British families, not to mention placing an unnecessary burden on an already strained National Health Service to treat cancers that need never have arisen in the first place. It is time to scrap factory farms
