Bad News: Bacon Is Just As Likely To Give You Cancer As Smoking

Bad news for bacon lovers everywhere: bacon and other processed meats may pose just as much of a risk of causing cancer as cigarettes do.

The World Health Organization listed processed meat as one of the most carcinogenic substances, in the same category with arsenic and asbestos, according to The Daily Mail.

Scientists from 10 countries agreed that eating processed meats — smoked, salted, cured, fermented, or preserved with chemicals — increases the chances of developing bowel cancer. They called these foods — which include not only bacon but ham, pastrami, salami, hot dogs, and many sausages — "carcinogenic to humans." Non-processed red meat, the group said, was also a probable carcinogen.

The WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer revealed to The Daily Mail that there are 150,000 deaths each year in the U.K. linked to meat consumption.