I grew up on hot dogs, bacon, bologna, basically everything “bad” for you. But did you know that processed red meat and dementia risk are linked? Researchers found that eating just two servings of processed red meat a week over decades had a significant 14% higher risk of dementia compared to those who consumed less than a tenth of a serving per day. Be honest, don’t you love the smell of bacon sizzling on Sunday morning, especially if you aren’t the cook? Well, just like everything else in life, bacon is popular again! Everyone talks about it, from how they like it cooked to how they put it on top of a big juicy hamburger. But hold on!

Sadly, we took another step back on the joy of bacon. In fact, each additional daily serving of processed red meat and dementia risk was associated with an extra 1.61 years of cognitive aging and 1.69 years in verbal memory. Mind you, a serving of processed red meat was equivalent to two slices of bacon (who stops at two slices?), one hot dog, or 2 ounces of sausage, salami, bologna, or similar foods.

Two servings a week over decades—that leaves a lot of us at risk! Honestly, I personally don’t think two servings of anything a week could be that bad for you, so I was happy to see that these findings were “observational studies” subject to reporting errors. That said, clinical trials are now trying to determine whether diet and other lifestyle changes actually influence brain health. In the meantime, I, for one, will pause before reaching for that extra serving of bacon this weekend. And whatever happened to pork being the “other white meat”?! Stay well and stay informed!