Foods that Contribute To Cancer, Plus Dying From It.

Ultra-Processed Foods

Americans are eating more ultra-processed foods.

Ultra-processed foods are food items that have been heavily processed during their production, such as fizzy drinks, mass-produced packaged breads, many ready meals, and most breakfast cereals. Ultra-processed foods are often relatively cheap, convenient, and heavily marketed, often as healthy options. These foods are generally higher in salt, fat, and sugar, and contain artificial additives and dyes.

Americans get more than 50% of their daily calories from ultra-processed foods. So do many other countries. This is a global issue.

Ultra-processed foods are linked to increased risks of suffering from diverse serious health issues such as dementia, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

Ultra-Processed Foods & Cancer

Now a huge study links ultra-processed foods to higher risks of getting cancer and dying from it.

Researchers from Imperial’s School of Public Health have produced the most comprehensive assessment to date of the association between ultra-processed foods and the risk of developing cancers.

200,000 middle-aged adults were monitored by UK researchers over a 10-year period, looking at the risk of developing any cancer overall as well as the specific risk of developing 34 types of cancer.

They also looked at the risk of people dying from cancer.

Higher consumption of ultra-processed foods was associated with a greater risk of developing cancer overall, specifically ovarian and brain cancers.

It was also associated with an increased risk of dying from cancer, most notably ovarian and breast cancers.

For every 10% increase in ultra-processed food in a person’s diet, there was:

• An increased incidence of 2% for getting cancer overall,

• A 19% increase for ovarian cancer specifically.

• Increased mortality for cancer overall by 6%,

• 16% increased risk for breast cancer and a 30% increase for ovarian cancer.

(This is not a lot of ultra-processed foods. This is 1/10th of your daily intake, so take this in.)

These links remained after adjusting for a range of socio-economic, and dietary factors, smoking status, physical activity, and body mass index (BMI).

Our bodies do not react the same way to these ultra-processed ingredients and additives as they do to fresh and nutritious minimally processed foods.

Ultra-Processed Foods Are Everywhere.

I see folks eating them throughout all the airports I travel to these past few years.

They are highly marketed with cheap prices and attractive packaging to promote consumption.

We need to educate and protect our populations from ultra-processed foods.

We need warning labels on these types of non-foods like we did with cigarettes!

Got mental health issues?

Got fatigue?

Got chronic illness?

Then get back to basics.

• Don’t eat things out of a box.

• Consume more veggies.

• Eat less. Move more.

• Eat organic as much as possible.

• Reach out and develop communities of caring folks.

Consider my membership at drlindseyberkson.com/membership.

Dr. B.

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References:

Ultra-processed food consumption among US adults from 2001 to 2018. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2021 DOI: 10.1093/ajcn/nqab305

Association of Ultraprocessed Food Consumption With Risk of Dementia A Prospective Cohort. Neurology, July 27, 2022 DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000200871

American Heart Association. "Too much ultra-processed food linked to lower heart health." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 11 November 2019. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191111084920.htm>.

Ultra-processed food consumption, cancer risk and cancer mortality: a large-scale prospective analysis within the UK Biobank. eClinicalMedicine, 2023 DOI: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.101840