So much of this week’s food and nutrition news has been devoted to the media headlines that bacon (and other processed meats, as well as red meat in general) is the new smoking. Or asbestos, depending which news outlet you read regularly. So what does this mean? Is bacon as bad for you as a cigarette? Quick answer is hell no-smoking is a high dose of poison. Meat certainly is not. Read on for a balanced take on what the science says and how this applies to what you eat.