Today I talk about one of my favorite topics, and that is, rats. More specifically, laboratory rats. Yes, I know. They’re scary looking rodents. But laboratory rats do something for us that is very important.

We cage them, give them cancer, kill and dissect them. All so that we can learn about what foods may possibly harm human beings. 

On 2 separate occasions, I had a job in nutrition pathology labs doing studies to secure the safety of food ingredients. In my 1st laboratory job, I worked for Dr. Paul Newberne, who was the famous scientist behind the hot dog study from the 70s. He was able to show conclusively that nitrites and nitrates that are in hot dogs and other processed meats can potentially cause cancer.

After a media blitz, the sales of hot dogs changed very little. But now the World Health Organization (WHO) has put out a conclusive report linking processed meats of all kinds to cancer. I review the findings in general, but if you want to read details of the report, start here

Some of these links that you follow may want you to sign up to become a member. If you do not wish to do that but would like to read the report, email me on my website contact page and I will send you the text of the report.
As always, if you have any questions or want to suggest future topics, feel free to send me a note on my website contact page.