“Some would nominate processed meats, like hot dogs, bacon, and ham [to be banned]. The evidence linking them to cancer—especially colorectal cancer—is so strong that health authorities are starting to say that we should never eat them at all, and never feed them to children. 

In 2007, the World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research released the most comprehensive review on diet and cancer ever published, prepared by the world’s leading experts, and it was quite damning about the link between processed meat and colorectal cancer. In early 2011, an update to the report encouraged people to avoid processed meats altogether.

Our obesity rates have never been higher, and cholesterol-lowering drugs have never been so popular. In a word, we are a mess.”

Dr. Barnard, of the Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine, makes some harsh indictments of the average Western diet, and offers solutions to the rampant preventative disease it’s spawned.

Occupy Your Diet: A Discussion About Food, Health and Kindness With Dr. Neal Barnard, Forbes, November 9, 2011.