Health News Update: Food and Cancer
Hello again everyone:
We commonly think about cancer as a genetic disease, and while some are mostly genetically based, most are actually a combination of multiple factors…and one of the clearly identified drivers of cancer happens to be food choices.
In this recent study, the following points summarize their findings:
“More than 1 in 5 of new gastrointestinal (GI) cancer cases globally were attributable to suboptimal dietary intake, according to a recent study. Writing in Gastroenterology, researchers…reported that excessive consumption of processed meats (the biggest culprit), insufficient fruit intake, and insufficient whole grain intake were the leading dietary risk factors. In addition, the number of diet-related cases doubled from 1990 to 2018.
The study also: “…observed that two regional groups, Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean, as well as high-income countries, bore the top three diet-attributable burdens worldwide in 2018, all driven mostly by an upward-trending excess of processed meat.”
“As for the impact of the SDI (Socio-Demographic Index), the authors explained that diet-attributable GI cancer burden was higher among adults with higher education and living in urban areas than among those with lower education and rural residency. “Some dietary habits tended to be worse in higher-SDI countries, specifically, higher consumption of processed meats,” they wrote.
https://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(24)05212-0/abstract
Bottom Line:
Proposed mechanisms for this cancer link were multiple including gut microbiome changes associated with processed meats and other processed foods, a lack of fiber and phytonutrients known to be protective. To reduce your risk, increase your whole-foods, plant based, unprocessed foods and reduce processed meats of any kind. If you choose to eat any other types of animal products, please make sure that they are organic, unprocessed, and constitute about 10% of your daily calories. Current flexitarian guidelines consider that to mean you would consume animal-based products 2 to 4 x per week…but just reducing by 50% is enough to make a real and significant difference in your health as well as that of the planet according to the EAT Lancet Commission. More specifically, the EAT Commission recommends 3 to 26 ounces of meat, poultry, and eggs per week and dairy at about 8 to 17 ounces per day. To read more about this important topic look at this link:
https://foodinsight.org/eat-lancet-commission-study-diet-sustainable-red-meat/
You certainly need to figure out what works for you; however, you need to know that there is a burgeoning health based scientific foundation for recommending lowering animal-based food products in favor of an unprocessed, whole-foods plant-based lifestyle. Please refer to my 3/10/25 blog for more exact details and references. What you eat is the primary driver of all of your biochemistry…you can eat to create illness or health…it is your choice. I hope this info helps you make informed decisions.
