Recent research has shown eating certain types of foods is associated with an increased risk of developing cancer—even if you’re not overweight.

And these potential cancer-causing foods have one thing in common: low nutritional quality—which is also known as junk foods.

JUNK FOODS: CANCER-CAUSING FOODS?

Most of us already know junk foods are bad for our health, but a new study published in PLOS Medicine has further illuminated the risk of poor dietary foods. Here are the details:

  • The study looked at self-reported food intake data of over 471,000 adults from 10 European countries from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition [1].
  • Among those adults, there were almost 50,000 cancer cases, mostly breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers.
  • Food intakes were assessed using the British Food Standards Agency nutrient profiling system (FSAm-NPS), a scoring system that labels food based on health factors like calories, sugar, sodium, saturated fatty acids, fiber, and protein. (The higher the score, the lower the nutritional quality of a food.)
  • The researchers found the foods with higher scores on the FSAm-NPS were associated with an increased risk of cancer, especially colorectal, upper respiratory and digestive tract and stomach, lungs in men, and breasts in postmenopausal women.

NUTRITION VERSUS WEIGHT AND EXERCISE

The analyses were also adjusted for additional factors like weight and body mass index (BMI), level of physical activity, smoking status, and family history of cancer, according to the study authors in a CNN article.

This showed that the low nutritional quality of foods being eaten was associated with the higher cancer risk, not other factors.

These findings mirror another study, published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics from 2017, with similar results.

For this study, data was collected on 92,000 women from age 50 to 79 who were part of the Women’s Health Initiativestudy. Then the researchers tracked cancer development in the women over a 15-year period [2].

The data showed that women eating lots of high-calorie junk foods like biscuits, chocolates, and pizza were 10% more likely to develop cancer—even if they maintained a healthy weight.

This just goes to show the power of nutrition and “food as medicine.”

CLEAN UP YOUR DIET, REDUCE YOUR RISK

Our current society is caught in a food-drive health epidemic. Americans are eating an average of 19.5 teaspoons of sugar per day. Junk foods and fast foods are more readily available than ever before, and the convenience is taking a scary toll on our health—the science is showing it.

And it’s a vicious cycle:

  • The more sugar we eat, the more we unnaturally crave it as our appetite hormones become imbalanced.
  • So, we keep eating more of these cancer-causing foods and feel powerless against them.
  • This continues to pack on the pounds while depriving our bodies of the nutrition they need to heal and thrive.

It’s time to clean up our plates not only for weight loss but for overall health and wellness—so we can live our fullest lives during our time on earth.

If you’re finally feeling called to revolutionize your health, conquer cravings for good, lose the weight, get your energy back, and reduce your risks of disease, following a program like the 21-Day Detox and the Keto Zone Diet can finally get you there.

The time is now to care for the physical bodies we were graciously given by our Creator. How are you treating yours today?