A NEW STUDY conducted by The British Medical Journal has established a link between highly-processed foods and the risk of cancer.
The authors of the report have suggested that the rapidly increasing consumption of ultra-processed foods “may drive an increasing burden of cancer in the next decades”.
They also acknowledged that further exploration of this subject is needed before the link is confirmed.
The foods in question include packaged baked goods and snacks, fizzy drinks, sugary cereals, ready meals and reconstituted meat products.
All of these foods contain high levels of sugar, fat and salt, and lack in vital vitamins and fibre.
Past studies have linked ultra-processed foods to higher risks of obesity, high blood pressure and increased cholesterol levels.
Until now, evidence linking the food types to cancer has been scarce.
Lead researcher Dr Mathilde Touvier, of the Sorbonne Paris Cite Epidemiology and Statistics Research Centre, said: “To our knowledge, this study is the first to investigate and highlight an increase in the risk of overall cancer associated with ultra-processed food intake.”
On the other hand, fresh or minimally processed foods, including fruit, vegetables, rice, pasta, meat and milk, were associated with lower risks.
The findings are based on 104,980 healthy French adults – 22% being men and 78% women) with an average age of 43 years who completed at least two 24-hour online dietary questionnaires, designed to measure usual intake of 3,300 different food items (NutriNet-Sante cohort study).
Foods were categorised according to degree of processing and the subjects were examined over an average of five years.
The results concluded that a 10% increase in the proportion of ultra-processed foods in the diet was associated with increases of 12% in the risk of overall cancer and 11% in the risk of breast cancer.
Several well-known risk factors for cancer, such as age, sex, educational level, family history of cancer, smoking status and physical activity levels, were also taken into account.
