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

Swapping out red or processed meats for plant-based proteins like nuts, seeds, or soy could help lower the chance of dying from heart disease — especially in women.

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.

We know that eating a lot of red and processed meats is linked to higher cancer risk, but scientists still don't fully understand how exactly that happens in the body.