What Foods Cause Cancer?

It is an unfortunate part of our world that cancer is a plague that can affect any one of us, but there are ways to prevent getting certain kinds or at least lessen the chance of it happening to you. Experts studying the links between food and cancer have come out to express that as of 2014 approximately 1.6 million cases of cancer would be prevented by changing your diet. They compiled a list of foods to check out that put your body more at risk. Among the foods they recommend you avoid, are genetically modified foods (GMOs), microwavable popcorn, grilled red meat, and farmed fish. GMOs are sprayed with all sorts of chemicals and as of now an estimated 90% of the corn and soy that reach the shelves of our grocery store fall into this category. Microwavable popcorn is all around bad starting from the packaging. The popcorn is sealed in a chemically-lined bag and has shown links to lung cancer. The kernels and the oil that are the foundation that becomes popcorn,  are soaked with butter that is artificial and is made with a chemical known as diacetyl that is quite harmful to human beings. Another product that humans should stay astray from is red meat that has been grilled. This would include meats like hot dogs that when grilled let off a carcinogen labeled heterocyclic aromatic amines. The last food I want to talk about is fish that has been raised and prepared on a farm. In the places, the fish are cramped together and treated with “antibiotics, pesticides, and other carcinogenic chemicals. They also do not contain as much omega-3 as wild salmon.” AAEAAQAAAAAAAAJUAAAAJDkwOTU4MjRmLTU4MGYtNDBlYy1hNDFmLWE5Y2Q4YTQzMjMyZQshutterstock_30208567top-10-gmo-foods

Many experts have focused in on what foods cause cancer, with much attention paid towards red meat. In a study done by the University of California, San Diego has made the claim that the reason that red meat is so bad for us is because it contains sugar. A specific kind of sugar known as Neu5Gc, incites a immune response that leads to inflammation occurring. A professor out of UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, Ajit Varki, MD, who specializes in medicine and cellular and molecular medicine, conducted a study on mice by feeding them this specific sugar. He and his team then gave the mice anti-Neu5Gc antibodies, which brought about a greater chance that the mice would start to develop cancer. Varki states, “When humans eat a diet that includes lots of red meat, the sugar molecule triggers the immune system to constantly produce antibodies to fight it off”, causing inflammation to take place. This leads to tumors developing and ultimately leads to cancer forming.

I’ve often heard that eating foods that contain a lot of fats was bad for you thinking that the fat itself was something to avoid. On the website for better health, it is explained that there is no direct link between foods heavy in fats and cancer, excluding prostate cancer. With that said, it is important to understand that if a person eats too much foods loaded in fats that can lead to obesity, putting yourself at a greater risk of getting cancers of the colon, breasts, kidney, oesophagus, gallbladder and endometrium. To combat against the likelihood of having cancer, one should start to include fruits and vegetables in their diet as they are rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

Sources:

http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/cancer_and_food

http://www.foodbeast.com/news/scientists-finally-discover-exactly-why-eating-red-meat-causes-cancer/

http://healthywildandfree.com/top-10-common-gmo-foods/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/wild-caught-salmon-vs-farmed-informed-kevin-gantner

http://nypost.com/2014/06/21/hot-dog-vendors-win-settlement-over-warming-wieners-in-kraut-water/

http://thetruthaboutcancer.com/cancer-causing-foods-2/

One thought on “What Foods Cause Cancer?

  1. Kristen Lauren Mckenzie

    I wonder if this is the only cause to cancer because I would assume its not. I feel like there is no hard core evidence correlating certain foods to cancer. I enjoyed reading your blog I just don’t agree that certain types of food we eat could lead to cancer. Maybe it’s that I don’t understand what goes into a person getting cancer but I don’t see how food can lead to a person getting cancer. What sort of chemicals in the GMOS are bad for you? Have there been any research done on people that could show how chemicals in the food generate cancer? These questions can’t exactly be answered which leads me to believe that there is no right answer for this question, which is okay in science. Scientist need to have more research to determine what actually causes cancer because there are too many deaths throughout the year.

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