(Natural News) There is a huge misconception in regards to consumption of red meat and processed meats — that too much can increase your risk of getting cancer. But, says Natural Newsfounder/editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, that's not entirely accurate.

Actually, it's the sodium nitrite contained in processed meat that presents the biggest danger.

In a recent podcast, Adams says people have once again been lied to by ignoramuses in the so-called "mainstream media," noting that the chemical is a color-fixer and preservative that is used to make dead meats appear pink and fresh.

Adams was responding to a warning issued by the World Health Organization — and dutifully picked up by a lazy, uncurious media — regarding the processed meat cancer threat that includes bacon, ham, sausage, beef jerky, lunch meats, hams, pizza meats, and others.

"All of these things are made with curing chemicals, usually," said the Health Ranger — primarily sodium nitrite. "And now the mainstream media is reporting on all of this as if it were new" information.

Adams reminded listeners that he was warning of the dangers of sodium nitrite — that it causes pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer, leukemia and brain tumors — over a decade ago in a book he wrote around 2004 called "Grocery Warning." In it, he warned, among other things, about sodium nitrite in processed meats causing cancer.

"In fact, practically everything I warned about in 2004 is being removed" from foods by restaurants, the food industry, and regulators, the Health Ranger added.

"This is just another case where I was a decade ahead of the mainstream media warning about these things," Adams said, noting that many people heeded those cautions and changed their diets, even though critics — primarily those in the food industry — continued to push their poisons as 'safe.'

Indeed, Adams has been warning about this for quite some time. In a 2005 column at Natural News, he wrote of a new study that found a 67-percent greater risk of pancreatic cancer risk stemming from the consumption of processed meats:

Consuming processed meats increases the risk of pancreatic cancer, says new research conducted at the University of Hawaii that followed nearly 200,000 men and women for seven years. According to lead study author Ute Nothlings, people who consumed the most processed meats (hot dogs and sausage) showed a 67% increased risk of pancreatic cancer over those who consumed little or no meat products.

However, Adams continued, "researchers failed to accurately identify the culprit responsible" for the increased risk — which "is the widespread use of a carcinogenic precursor ingredient known as sodium nitrite."