PROCESSED FOOD CANCER DANGER
Cakes, crisps, pizza, and chicken nuggets raise risk of disease
JUNK foods like pizza, ready meals, cakes and crisps increase the risk of cancer, research revealed yesterday.
Experts have issued a health warning over industrially processed products and their link to the disease that kills 162,000 Britons each year.
They said danger lurks in sugary snacks, cereals and reconstituted meat products containing high levels of sugar, fat and salt but lacking vitamins and fibre.
The hit list includes favourites like instant noodles, pre-packed bread, ready-to-eat desserts, meatballs and chicken nuggets and artificially sweetened fizzy drinks.
Studies showed a 10 per cent increase in the proportion of “ultra-processed foods” in the diet was associated with a 12 per cent increased risk of
cancer and was storing up a future health catastrophe.
Thibault Fiolet, of the Nutritional Epidemiology Research Team in France which carried out the study, said: “These results suggest the rapidly increasing consumption of ultra-processed foods may drive an increasing burden of cancer in the next decade.”
The research, published today in medical journal The BMJ, comes less than a year after Cancer Research UK warned being overweight is the biggest preventable cause of the disease after smoking and is linked to 13 types of cancer.
It has also led to increasing cases of bowel, breast and pancreatic cancer.
Professor Linda Bauld, Cancer Research UK’s prevention expert, said: “There is good evidence that too little fruit, vegetables and fibre and too much processed and red meat in our diets can contribute to the development of some types of cancer.
“Eating a balanced diet, avoiding junk food and maintaining a healthy weight are things we can all do.”
The findings come from a study by researchers in France and Brazil who evaluated potential associations between ultraprocessed food and cancer risk.
Results were based on the records of 104,980 healthy French adults with an average age of 43 who completed online questionnaires to measure food intake.
They were grouped according to degree of processed food eaten and cases of cancer were identified from participants’ declarations validated by medical records over an average of five years. Risk factors like age, sex, family history of cancer, smoking and activity levels were taken into account.
Findings show that a 10 per cent increase in the proportion of heavily processed foods in the diet was associated with a 12 per cent increased risk of cancer overall and 11 per cent increased risk of breast cancer.
Further tests found no significant association between less processed foods, such as canned vegetables, cheese and fresh bread, and cancer risk, while fresh or minimally processed foods like vegetables, pulses, eggs, fish and milk were associated with a lower risk.
Dr Ian Johnson, nutrition researcher and emeritus fellow at the Quadram Institute in Norwich, said: “The best approach to minimising the risk of most types of cancer remains to avoid tobacco use of any kind, take account of national diet and alcohol guidelines, eat substantial quantities of fresh fruit and vegetables, and maintain one’s weight within the recommended range.”