Children who regularly eat cured and processed meat may be at a greater risk of leukaemia, a study suggests, but an Australian nutritionist says parents need not panic if their children have been tucking into hot dogs and salami.
Scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health surveyed 515 children and teenagers from Taiwan, some of whom had leukaemia, and found that those who ate cured meat or fish regularly were 74 per cent more likely to develop the disease.
Those who ate vegetables and soy-based foods regularly were 50 per cent less likely than their meat-eating counterparts to develop leukaemia.
However, the study, published in the online journal BMC Cancer, did not include a detailed examination of why the foods caused the higher incidence of cancer, and Australian researchers have questioned the findings.
The Cancer Council NSW nutritionist Kathy Chapman said: "It's a very small sample size to be making these kinds of associations between diet and cancer risk.
"Normally when we look at a study like this you would be looking at 20,000 participants.
"Also, the best type of studies are those which follow people up over time rather than asking them what they did in the past. I don't think it's time for parents to be panicking if their kids have been tucking into the hot dogs over the school holidays."
The authors of the study have acknowledged their research is not definitive but recommend that children not eat large amounts of cured meat and fish.
What about those guys in hot dog eating contests? Or, if there were any, bacon eating ones, too?
Good grief...we all grew up on Oscar Mayer baloney & hot dogs, ham, salami, kielbasa, bacon, corned beef and sausages. Half the country would have leukemia if this was true.
How in the hell did I ever survive childhood?
I have read many times of the dangers of excessive soy (estrogen) being eaten by growing children.
Early puberty for girls and feminization for boys appears to be the result.
What’s a large amount? My kids have deli meat sandwiches once a week. Is that a large amount? They also eat lots of fruit and veggies....does this offset anything. And they like soy milk in their cereal.....So where does that leave them?