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Processed Meats -- Yes, Including Bacon -- Can Cause Cancer, World Health Experts Say

(CBS) – Eating a piece of bacon is as bad for you as inhaling cigarette smoke.

That's the startling finding today of a new report from the World Health Organization.

CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker reports bacon isn't the only meat raising concerns.

Some of our favorite foods are now linked to colon, stomach and other cancers. Scientists form the WHO say they evaluated 800 studies from several continents and concluded eating processed meats, including those that are smoked, cured or salted, pose the same cancer risk as smoking.

The North American Meat Institute calls the report "dramatic and alarmist" and argues cancer is a complex disease "not caused by single foods."

At Grant Park Packing, where pork is king, they sell 15,000 pounds of bacon a month -- some of it smoked.

"Scientist, or doctors or  whatever. They all have their own priorities. Today they will say it causes cancer, tomorrow they will say it's perfectly nothing wrong with it," Joe Maffei says.

But Brad Jones admits the news makes him rethink his way of eating.

"I'm going to eat right now -- I'm going to be honest with you -- it but I'm going to cut back," Jones said of the Polish sausage in his bag.

The American Cancer Society make note of the studies but stops short of telling people that the meats cause cancer.

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