Bacon lovers are at increased risk of dementia, a new study suggests

The inflated price is enough to make you swoon – but wait, there’s more.

Millions of New Yorkers who start their day with a bacon, egg and cheese won’t like this news – a new study has linked consumption of the beloved Big Apple breakfast with an increased risk of dementia.

A team of researchers — mostly from the Harvard School of Public Health — recently delivered the latest bad news for bacon, the cornerstone of the iconic handheld meal, after analyzing a pair of studies dating back to 1976 and involving roughly 170,000 nurses and other health. the professionals.

The focus of the study, published in the February 11 issue of Neurology, was to clarify the link between whole red meat intake and overall cognitive health.

Overall, the findings will not please any dedicated carnivore. But for lovers of processed pork, the news is especially painful.

To conduct their research, the experts looked at two different, decades-long studies that began in 1976 and included nearly 170,000 mental health nurses and other health care professionals.

Many years and many crunched numbers later, processed meats such as bacon, hot dogs, sausage and bacon were cited for increasing the risk of cognitive decline and dementia by 13% in study participants who consumed an average of just 0.25 servings per day, according to a study analysis published by Eating Well.

According to the American Psychological Association, cognitive function is defined as “the performance of the mental processes of perception, learning, memory, understanding, awareness, reasoning, judgment, intuition, and language.”

Dementia, as defined by the Alzheimer’s Association, is “an umbrella term for the loss of memory, language, problem-solving, and other thinking skills that is severe enough to interfere with daily life.”

Alzheimer’s is the most common type of dementia, the organization said.

The solution to your breakfast woes, however, may be waiting behind that same deli counter—the study also suggested that this increased risk could be negated by replacing bacon with another NYC favorite, salmon (or any fish, for that matter). true).

“Replacing one serving per day of processed red meat with one serving of fish was associated with a 28% lower risk of dementia and a 51% lower risk of subjective cognitive decline,” reported Eating Well.

Don’t start eating too much lox, though, if you can still afford it today—nutritionists, while praising salmon’s nutritional benefits, also caution against overeating the smoked variety, due to its high sodium content.

The bad news for bacon comes as the processed meat has already taken a significant hit from health experts.

The World Cancer Research Fund recently linked consumption to an increase in cancer rates among young people, for example.