IT’S NOT CONCLUSIVE, but a new study by French researchers has found a link between eating highly processed foods and the incidence of cancer. A “link” is not the same as proof of causation, but the findings are still significant.
The scientists were looking at the intake of “highly processed foods”. This includes: •foods such as bakery products: mass produced bread (on sale in most corner shops in Tower Hamlets!) and cakes and biscuits; •meat processed into ham or other products eaten cold; •meat or fish processed into nuggets, balls or pies which are usually heated up; snack foods such as crisps, chocolate and sweets; •drinks sold in tins, cartons or plastic bottles; •ready meals of all descriptions including instant products you pour boiling water onto.
The scientists studied 105,000 people, most of whom were middle aged women, over a period of about five years. They found that the more of these processed foods that people ate, the higher their risk of developing some form of cancer. For example, those who increased their intake of processed food by 10% saw their risk of developing cancer rise by 12%.
It is widely accepted that smoking puts people at a high risk of developing cancer. When it comes to diet, several studies have shown that being overweight is a risk factor, and recent work has suggested that eating processed meat regularly also increases individual risks.
This survey does not prove that eating processed foods is a direct cause of cancer. For example, it could be that those who eat a lot of processed foods are more overweight than those who do not, and their increased risk of cancer comes from the extra weight.
However, despite these reservations, scientists believe that there is at least some evidence of a direct link. And if someone becomes overweight because they eat a large amount of processed food, they will increase their risk of developing cancer, and it doesn’t really matter whether the cause is one factor, or the other – or the combination.
Before we all have a complete panic, we need to look at the scale of increased risk. This report suggests that if 10,000 people increased their intake of highly processed food by 10%, there would be nine extra cancers in the group each year – compared with a group of 10,000 people who had not been eating the extra processed food.
The risk to the individual is, therefore, relatively small. But if there are nine extra cancers each year, that’s 90 in a decade. If everyone in Tower Hamlets increased their intake of processed food, there could be an extra 270 cancers a year – or 2,700 in a decade, or nearly 20,000 in the lifetime of the average resident.
Numbers cannot predict your personal future. The most we can say for now is that this is another good reason to eat a balance diet of food cooked at home, including lots of vegetables. As you were!
•Read more about it: Enjoy National Blue Pancake Day! Quick: it’s national Chocolate Cake Day!
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