Shattuck: Bacon report serves up baloney
Tom Shattuck Tuesday, October 27, 2015
 FINE CUTS: Miguel Andrades, a butcher at Savenor’s Market on Charles Street, holds meat products sold at the shop. The World Health Organization reported that processed meats, including hot dogs, increase the chances of getting ca
The World Health Organization released a report yesterday that’s nothing but a bunch of soccer loving Euro-bull.
Here’s the gist: Processed meats cause cancer and red meat probably does, too. They actually put bacon, sausage, jerky in the same risk category as smoking and asbestos. Smoking and asbestos. Really?
Remember, this is the same WHO (part of the United Nations, mind you) that ran around last year telling us to expect 250,000 annual deaths due to climate change in the near future. The chief alarmist there is Dr. Margaret Chan, who added, “Our planet is losing its capacity to sustain human life in good health.”
A fat-free fish still rots from the head.
But now they tell us that you’re one ribeye away from death. That means no more bologna for you. Funny how most of the foods targeted are American staples. But then again, rarely does the U.N. look fondly upon the gluttonous West.
Not to be cynical, but for years the WHO (and still on its website) loudly reported that “Dietary intake of fats strongly influences the risk of cardiovascular disease.” That theory was blown out of the water earlier this year and now we are learning that some fats may actually prevent heart disease.
But let’s put the facts aside, because this isn’t really about your mortality. It’s about taking away those things you love. The Geneva crowd looks at Americans as beer-swilling, hot dog devouring barbarians, uncouth from A to Z. We’re too rich. We’re too aggressive. We’re racist. We consume too much. We pollute too much. The evil free market rewards the rich while the very poor are forced to flip hamburgers (while they’re still legal, at least) just to get by.
The World Health Organization is basically Bernie Sanders. And like Bernie Sanders, the U.N. and the WHO should rarely be taken seriously.
So eat a big juicy American steak. Steak is nutritious — that much is guaranteed — unlike the dire and ever-evolving warnings from the Euro crowd.
And a personal note to the World Health Organization. Bacon is some of the best stuff on Earth. It’s cheap and yummy. We Americans love it. We eat it before we drive our big trucks and build our huge cities and when we fight your fights for you and keep you safe, you nose-picking, sniveling pantywaists.
The U.N. and the WHO are nothing but a garnish. Attractive but tasteless, and at the end of the day, useless.
Tom Shattuck is executive producer of Boston Herald Radio.
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