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 processed meats like bacon or sausages is strongly linked to a higher chance of getting serious diseases like cancer, diabetes, and heart problems, and even dying earlier.

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.

Eating processed meats like bacon or sausages every day is linked to a higher chance of heart disease, but eating regular red meat like steak or burgers doesn’t seem to raise the risk—so it might be the processing, not the meat, that’s the problem.

If you swap out foods like burgers and bacon for things like beans, chicken, or fish, it might help lower your chances of getting sick because these foods work better in your body.

Eating processed meats like bacon and hot dogs might raise your risk of heart disease and diabetes more than eating plain red meat, probably because they have more salt and chemicals added to preserve them.