Official food advice says to eat less red meat and processed meats like bacon, but this advice mostly comes from studies that can't prove cause and effect and don't show how much risk there really is.

Regular red meat, like steak or roast, isn't the same as processed stuff like bacon or hot dogs — they're made differently and might affect your health in different ways, so experts say we shouldn't treat them the same when studying their health effects.

Experts gave different advice for fresh red meat versus processed meat because they might affect your health differently, and people have different preferences. They only looked at health, not the environment or animal treatment.

Eating processed meats like bacon or sausage is more likely to cause long-term health problems than eating plain red meats like steak, according to health studies.

Eating a lot of red meat — especially processed kinds like bacon or sausages — might increase your chances of dying from heart disease, and this seems to affect women more than men.

Eating even small amounts of red and processed meats regularly might increase your chances of getting long-term illnesses like heart disease or cancer, according to big reviews of past studies.