Anyone know exactly what 'processed' meat is? Humans have been cooking meat over a fire for a long damn time. Now that we live longer, this means cancer? I'm a vegetarian, but I also put weight toward the idea that being human is what causes cancer.
Processed meats are anything that does more than come off the animal, get cut into bits and prepped for sale. Pork loin is not a processed meat. Carving-ready ham is, because it's generally been cut into chunks, slammed into a sock, bathed in brine, pressure cooked and wrapped in a vegetable protein wrapper to turn it into lunch meat.
I made my own bacon this year from raw, freshly butchered pork belly. Cured it without nitrate salt (I think botulism fears are a bit overblown), then (hot) smoked it myself. Not sure it makes it less harmful to health, but I'm sure it doesn't make it any worse. I assume it's something(s) along the manufacturing routes that make processed meats so much worse. I'm going to continue to home "process" until I'm convinced that it's a bad idea.
One of the perks of living out in BFE is access to butchers who see their profession as an art. I've bought pork bellies, dry rubbed them and set then in a smoker to be slowly converted into awesome. We also have a wide assortment of Amish outlets to get uncured bacon, ham etc. I doubt I will ever make my own bacon again as it was a lot of work, but I'm glad that I did.
You did a step-by-step of that once, didn't you? I'm jealous. Also maybe going to give it a try myself, now that I have like a garage and a yard and stuff. I suspect it's the salt that makes processed meats worse, but at the same time, every study basically says "if you don't eat this stuff in moderation it will fuck you up" which the mere existence of gout tends to support.