POLL: Is Bacon as Bad as Cigarettes?

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is targeting Iowa, a state that produces more pork than any other, in its campaign to counter the surging popularity of bacon.

The group has paid for a billboard on Douglas Avenue just west of the Merle Hay Mall that will show strips of bacon in a cigarette box and say "Warning: Bacon can cause colorectal cancer," according to DesMoinesRegister.com

The Washington D.C.-based group picked Des Moines and even called out the city's annual Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival because, as Susan Levin of the physicians group told Register reporter Dan Piller,  “Iowa is not only the nation’s largest pork producing state but because bacon has become so chic.”

The group lists several reasons not to eat bacon. It's high in fat, cholesterol and sodium, which can increase your risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Cured and smoked meats also are a cancer risk, according to several studies by the American Institute for Cancer Research. 

Less than two strips of bacon a day can increase a person's risk of colorectal cancer by 21 percent, according to the group.

How do you feel about bacon?  Will this group's billboard influence how often you eat it?  Take our Patch Poll.