Processed Meats & Forming Habits

Are processed meats bad for our brain? Dangerous Dave talks about a Harvard study that says we have a 13% greater risk of dementia for eating bacon and other processed meats. Plus, it the 3 weeks to form a habit accurate? Experts say it could even take up to a year.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Please, he's deeper in the den with dangerous day. Well,
it's a Monday, and I'm not going to sugarcoat the
bad news for you. Bacon is up thirteen percent, and
I'm not talking about inflation. Team of researchers from Harvard
School of Public Health just released a new report. Data
going back almost fifty years of bad news is that
processed meats bacon, hot dog, sausage, pepperoni, ham increase your

(00:21):
risk of cognitive decline in dementia by thirteen percent. It's
even among participants who averaged just a quarter of a
serving per day, or about two servings per week. Experts
say the increased risk could be reversed by replacing it
with the maybe something fish or anything like that. They
say bacon and other processed meats were never considered to
be a peak of healthiness, but reps for the foods

(00:44):
have taken a serious hit over the past few years.
Last year, World Cancer Research Fund link conception of processed
meats with an uptick in cancer rates among people. According
to the study from ten years ago, people who eat
red meat and processed meat every day forty percent more
likely to get cancer compared to those who eat it
once a week or less, oh man, but then again

(01:05):
without baking his life even worth living deeper in the
two all right, you probably heard people say it takes
three weeks to form a new habit. That is, if
you're still clinging to your new year's resolution, you might
be thinking to yourself, why is it still a struggle? Well, really,
the twenty one day thing is probably not true. It's
probably a lot longer than that. New research has shown
that forming long lasting habits requires two to five months

(01:28):
of consistent practice. It even can take up to a year,
depending upon the person. Researchers say that if you're serious
about forming a new habit, the important thing is to
understand the process, then to be fixated on a current timeline.
Here are some of the takeaways. First of all, forming
any new habit is repetition. Early repetition leads to the
biggest gains, and that's why it feels like it just

(01:49):
took three weeks to lock in. Compared to a learning
a language or something like that, where progress is rapid
at first but plateaus as we get two higher levels
of proficiency. Cementing new habits can take an extended period
to reinforce. Should be prepared to take time, even up
to a year to build. It gets to a point
where it's truly automatic, and that's when it requires minimal

(02:09):
conscious effort. Morning habits actually form more successfully than evening ones.
Simple actions clear triggers, stuff like flossing every day, become automatic,
and more complex behaviors like sticking to a gym workout
take longer. New behaviors that you want to add show
stronger habit formation than those assigned to you, which to

(02:30):
me sounds obvious. If you want to be more likely
to stick to a new habit, you will be if
you enjoy it. Is there a way you can make
what you're trying to do more fun? The bottom line
is media in time to forming a new habit is
between fifty nine and sixty six days, but it's highly variable,
and it can take up to three hundred and thirty
five days to lock in, so almost a year. I
would tell you more, but I haven't gotten into the

(02:50):
habit of doing that yet. To me again for another
episode of Deeper in the Den with Dangerous Davey Year