#FreeBacon trends as bacon lovers unite against WHO meat report

The World Health organization (WHO) has recently come out with a compelling evidence that would incriminate processed meats as one of the causes of cancer. And in an unlikely turn of events, the bacon lovers and other stakeholders were making a united stand to what they feel is an injustice against the poor meaty delight that they have come to love for years.

The unpopular findings of the WHO report on the carcinogenicity of consumption of processed meats such as bacon, sausages and hot dogs, naturally, did not sit well with some people who even took to social media their grievances.

The worldwide trending topics on Twitter included the hashtags #FreeBacon, #Bacongeddon and #JeSuisBacon, according to a report from Reuters.

Thomson Reuters studied the sentiment of the social media users based on the nature of their tweets (positive, neutral and negative). They found out that more people were really unhappy about the WHO report based on an analytics tool, with an overwhelming ratio of nearly 7 negative tweets to 1 positive tweet on Monday; and 6.5 negative tweets to 1 positive tweet on the following day.

The researcher team, made up of 22 scientists, concluded that processed meats are in the same category as tobacco smoking and asbestos in terms of being a cancer risk. They found out that these type of meats can cause colorectal cancer when consumed regularly. In addition to processed meats, the WHO also cautioned about red meats, which includes pork, beef, veal and lamb, as a probable cause of cancer, the npr reported.

Meanwhile, the North American Meat Institute blasted the research against processed meat, which also included beef jerky, canned meat, corned beef and ham, arguing that it simply goes against what common sense dictates, and completely disregards the various studies that have already shown no link between meat and cancer, Fox News wrote.

"Scientific evidence shows cancer is a complex disease not caused by single foods and that a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle choices are essential to good health," Barry Carpenter, president of the North American Meat Institute, said in a statement.

On Monday, the WHO also tweeted the result of their study, which has been retweeted more than 3,000 times and has been favorited by 1,000 users by Tuesday. The tweet reads, "The International Agency for Research on Cancer, the #cancer agency of WHO, classified processed meat as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1)."

So, what is your stand on the issue? We want to hear from you on the comments section.