Researchers Say Your Diet is Increasing Your Risk for Cancer

Researchers say the diet of many Americans is increasing their risk for developing a variety of cancers. Americans still aren’t eating enough of the right foods and are consuming too much of the wrong ones. And that’s increasing their risk for cancer.

A study Trusted Source published this week in the JNCI Cancer Spectrum reaffirmed that diet can play a significant role in whether people develop the disease and, like exercise and alcohol consumption, their eating habits are a lifestyle choice.

“I would hope that we would be aware that a large amount of new cancer cases is preventable,” said Dr. Fang Fang Zhang, the study’s lead author and an associate professor of epidemiology at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy in Boston.

“Diet is modifiable,” she told Healthline. “It’s difficult, of course, but if we can improve our intake of these dietary factors, many cancer cases can be prevented.”

Unlike earlier studies that have focused on cancer risks in individuals, this one is certain the likelihood of the illness showing up in the adult U.S. population as a whole. Zhang notes that more people in the United States die from cancer than anything else, except for heart disease.

Data on food choice and cancer

Researchers analyzed national data on how much food in each of seven categories adults 20 years and older are eating. It also looked at the incidence of different types of cancer in 2015.

The researchers then came up with estimates of how many of the cancer cases diagnosed each year can be attributed to diets featuring less than ideal amounts of whole grains, dairy products, fruits, vegetables, red and processed meats, and sugary drinks. The study is part of a federally funded effort to come up with cost-effective ways of improving the nation’s health through diet.

What the researchers found is that poor diets accounted for about 80,110 of the cancer diagnoses in 2015. Most of those cases — 84 percent — were the direct result of patients either not eating enough whole grains, dairy products, and produce or too much meat that’s considered carcinogenic and sugar-sweetened beverages.

Nutrition as prevention

Although scientists have long suspected a relationship between diet and cancer, in recent years an explosion of data has shown there’s a direct nexus, says Dr. Anton Bilchik, professor of surgery at the John Wayne Cancer Institute and chief of general surgery at Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California.

“We now have some real science that we really haven’t had before,” he told Healthline. As an example, Bilchik notes that the number of new cases of colon cancer has skyrocketed among millennials, a trend thought to be the result of eating too much sugar and processed foods as well as having inadequate exercise. High levels of sugar increase the production of insulin, a hormone that in turn is believed to stimulate the growth of cancer calls.

Bilchik was struck by this study’s focus on nutrition as a potential cancer-causing factor. He notes that previous studies probing the origins of cancer typically have looked at a combination of risk factors — not just obesity, for example, but behaviors such as smoking and lack of exercise.

Zhang’s research, by contrast, zeroed in on diet, providing data showing that poor food choices alone can result in cancer regardless of whether a person has a nicotine habit or is sedentary. “This study gives further evidence to the fact that diet is an important prevention. Diet stands on its own,” Bilchik said. The remaining cases were ascribed to obesity, which itself is a significant risk factor for 13 types of cancer.

Read the rest of the article >>>  These Foods Are Increasing Your Risk for Cancer

Note from the editor:  Scientific research on encapulated whole food nutrition demonstrates it plays a big part in cancer prevention and reducing risks as sited in the article " These Foods Are Increasing Your Risk for Cancer — What to Eat Instead" when taken consistently. Here's 3 of the many research articles on encapsulated whole food nutrition that can be found http://www.wholefood4you.com. 1. A randomized parallel-group dietary study for stages II–IV ovarian cancer survivors  (cancer study demonstrating improved quality of life) 2. Supplementation with Mixed Fruit and Vegetable Juice Concentrates Increased Serum Antioxidants and Folate in Healthy Adults  (absorbs nutrients into the body when encapsulated) 3. Systemic inflammatory load in humans is suppressed by consumption of two formulations of dried, encapsulated juice concentrate (reduces systemic inflammation).