When you’re an young adult who has access to money, limited time, and lack adult supervision at all A shopping trip at the grocery store would likely look like this: you go straight to the packaged food section and throw instant noodles in your cart and then a plethora of sweet snacks, sodas and cornflakes. Then, just before you make the decision to fill the basket with a few sour-looking fruit and vegetables to convince yourself that you are eating healthier, that shiny bag of potato chips, which costs significantly less is what you are drawn to.
The issue is that the vast majority of what you’ve bought are processed food that has been packaged in items manufactured in factories and chemically or physically altered food items that are ready to eat, inexpensive and marketed with a lot of force.
There’s no need to criticize, and you shouldn’t need to feel guilty about the choices you make . just more mindful.
While they are cheap and convenient, they may be, these highly processed food items (UPFs) just enhance your lifestyle on the outside and can be a major cause of harm to your body. Just in time for World Cancer Day, a recent study conducted by Imperial College London has revealed that eating excessive amounts of UPFs could result in the chance of developing and suffering from cancer.
Due to the large amount of fat, salt sugar, artificial additives, and salt that they contain, UPFs were previously associated with higher risk of overweight, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. However, this study is the most complete analysis of the links between UPFs and cancer.
In collecting data on diets and eating habits of more than 200,000 mid-age adults Researchers monitored the health of participants over a period of 10 years. They looked at the likelihood of developing cancer in general and the particular likelihood of developing the 34 kinds of cancer. They also assessed the likelihood of cancer-related deaths among people.
The findings showed that a the consumption of UPFs that was higher was linked to a higher likelihood of developing cancer over all including brain and ovarian cancers. It was also linked to an increased chance of being diagnosed with these types of cancer.
For every 10 percent rise in UPF that occurs in one’s diet it was associated with an increase in risk of 2% of cancer in general with a 19% rise in ovarian cancer, specifically.
Furthermore, every 10 percent increase in ultra-processed foods consumption was also connected to a higher risk of death for all cancers by 6 percent, along with an increase of 16% for breast cancer, and an increase of 30% for Ovarian cancer.
The links remained even after adjusting for a variety of socioeconomic behavioral and dietary variables including smoking habits or physical activity as well as the Body mass index (BMI).
Organizations such as WHO or FAO have recommended previously restricting food products that are processed to make them part of an wholesome, sustainable diet. Many countries, such as Brazil, France and Canada are rewriting their national guidelines for dietary guidelines to restrict these food items. In India, though the consumption of UPFs isn’t quite as high as those of the other countries but it seems to be rising.
The study’s authors claim that their research is purely observational and doesn’t prove a causal connection between ultra-processed food and cancer because of the nature of observation in the study. More research is required in this field for the establishment of a causal connection.