What the new research about processed meat and cancer means for your diet

"Processed meats cause cancer."

Those four little words have sparked a massive amount of buzz from meat-eaters, vegans, physicians, researchers and more in the last week.

The uproar began on Monday when the World Health Organization announced that processed meats like hot dogs, sausages and bacon belong in the same category of cancer risk as tobacco and asbestos.

Average consumers have been left trying to figure out what that means for their daily lives.

MPR News' Kerri Miller spoke with Janet M. Riley, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs at the North American Meat Institute about the recent announcement.

She also spoke with Dr. Robert Lawrence, Director of the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Dr. Steven Clinton, of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Though Riley called the WHO's categorization of processed meat into question, there was one thing everyone agreed upon: This is not a call to stop eating meat completely.

Citing the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer, Dr. Lawrence put the data into perspective.

"There are about a million cancer deaths from tobacco, about 600,000 cancer deaths due to the misuse of alcohol, and 34,000 cancer deaths from processed meat," Lawrence said. "So for every 100 cancer-related tobacco deaths, there are 3 to 4 from processed meat."

To hear the entire discussion about the ties between processed meat and cancer with Janet Riley, Dr. Robert Lawrence, and Dr. Steven Clinton, use the audio player above.