New Evidence Linking Highly Processed Foods to Cancer: Study

Nutritious food

as if Mark Lalanila

Eating highly processed foods like chips, candy, and fast food is the American way of life.

Highly processed foods account for an estimated 73% of the US food supply. According to a recent studyAnd the average American adult gets more than 60% of their daily calories from highly processed foods.

But our American lifestyle may be America’s way of death, as new research links a diet of highly processed foods to a higher risk of cancer.

“This study adds to the growing body of data suggesting a relationship between UPFs [ultra-processed foods] and cancer risk,” said Dr. Helen Crocker, Assistant Director of Research and Policy at the World Cancer Research Fund International, which funded the study. He said in a news release.

The new study, published in European Journal of Nutritionanalyzed the diets of more than 450,000 adults in 11 European countries and participated in the European Cancer and Nutrition Study, or EPIC.

The study found that people who ate 10% more highly processed foods were 23% more likely to develop head and neck cancer.

A poor diet is also associated with a 24% lower risk of esophageal cancer, the tube that connects your throat to your stomach, which is the sixth leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine.

To the researchers’ surprise, the increased cancer risk had little to do with junk food weight gain or obesity: A larger waist-to-hip ratio explained only 5 percent of the 23 percent risk of head and neck cancer. According to the study.

“In other words, if UPF contributes to cancer risk, they do so at least by contributing to obesity, and by other mechanisms it is much larger,” said Dr. David Katz, a specialist in preventive and lifestyle medicine participating in the study. He told CNN..

“UPFs have been linked to excess weight and body fat gain in several observational studies. This is because they generally choose to eat more portions and consume more calories because they are tasty, convenient and cheap,” said Fernanda Morales-Burstein, a PhD student at the University of Bristol and lead author of the study.

“However, it was interesting that the association between eating UPFs and … cancer in our study did not seem to be significantly explained by body mass index and waist-to-hip ratio,” added Morales-Berstein.

This suggests that additives such as emulsifiers and artificial sweeteners and “forever chemicals” such as PFAS from food packaging and manufacturing may increase cancer risk.

“The association between higher consumption of UPFs and increased risk of … cancer supports our cancer prevention recommendations for a healthy diet rich in whole grains, vegetables, fruits and beans,” Crocker said.