Bacon Cancer Link: Twitter Reacts To WHO Announcement, See The Best Tweets From #FreeBacon, #JeSuisBacon, #Bacongeddon

Foodies, companies, butchers, media organizations and plenty of others have turned to Twitter to vent, rage and vow never to give up bacon in the wake of a World Health Organization (WHO) report issued Monday saying processed meats including bacon, ham and sausages cause cancer. Even eating less than two slices of bacon per day could raise a person's chance of getting colorectal cancer by 18 percent, the organization said. But the collective response on social media was defiantly clear: We don't care. We will keep eating bacon anyway.

Hashtags including #FreeBacon, #Bacongeddon and #JeSuisBacon were trending Tuesday, for the second day in a row as people posted pictures of bacon and defended their sworn love of the meat. The media company Thomson Reuters conducted an analysis of these tweets and found the ratio of negative tweets to positive tweets regarding cancer and bacon to be 7-to-1 Monday and 6.5-to-1 Tuesday.

Here's a sampling of the firestorm of tweets, memes and photos in the wake of the WHO report. Many vowed to never give up bacon:

Some tweeted "Je Suis Panceta," which is a type of cured pork that is more or less a fancier cousin of bacon.

Others compared their devotion to bacon to the quests of heroes in epic films.

Individuals and pork companies alike simply posted pictures of bacon -- lots of it -- perhaps in defiance of the report. If bacon is bad for health, "Bring it on!" they seemed to be saying.

Others simply voiced their sadness at the news or proclaimed their love for this crispy, salty, flavorful meat: