September 11, 2016

One of the top 10 cancer-causing foods

The food we eat has the ability to affect our health in very big ways – for better or for worse. Eat too much fat and you increase your risk of heart disease. Drink too much alcohol and you damage your liver. In today’s day and age of processed and “fast” food, much of what we eat is actually a detriment to our health. But can food actually cause cancer? How much damage does our diet actually do to our cells? I will start writing for the following days about some foods that have been found by studies to increase cancer risks and today I will start talking about Processed Meats.

Processed Meats

Processed meats are those preserved by smoking, curing or salting, or the addition of chemical preservatives. This includes bacon, ham, pastrami, salami, pepperoni, hot dogs, some sausages and hamburgers (if they have been preserved with salt or chemical additives) and more.

You’ve probably seen and read about the fact that processed meat has been classified as a ‘definite’ cause of cancer. And red meat is a ‘probable’ cause.

There’s now a large body of evidence that bowel cancer is more common among people who eat the most red and processed meat. (There’s also growing evidence for a possible link to both stomach and pancreatic cancers, but this seems to be less clear cut than the link to bowel cancer.)

The most convincing overview of the evidence of a link to bowel cancer comes from a 2011 analysis by researchers at the WCRF ( World Cancer Research Fund, reference below), who combined the results of a number of previous studies, to try to get a clear sense of the overall picture. They were able to group the data according to those who ate the most red and processed meat and those who ate the least. A key finding from the WCRF analysis is that red meat and processed meat aren’t equally harmful: processed meat is more strongly linked to bowel cancer than red meat.

Particularly problematic are the nitrates that are added to these meats as a preservative, coloring and flavoring.

In the manufacture of sausages, cold cuts, preserves animals and other meat products, nitrates act as antimicrobial agents and protect against dangerous toxins. But also they prevent rancidity and act as preservatives in cured meats, sausages, cold cuts, some cheeses and canned fish. Microbial action that occurs both in the environment and in the digestive tract, produces the transformation of nitrate to nitrite. Nitrites react with hemoglobin to form methemoglobin. The danger begins when nitrates turn into nitrites, since these, once in the digestive tract, can react with amines from protein foods of animal origin, and form nitrosamines which are really dangerous molecules for the body and are clearly associated with an increased risk of certain type of cancers.

Many processed meats are also smoked as part of the curing process, and smoking is a well-known cause of carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which enter your food during the smoking process.

There may be other factors at play as well, but at the very least it's known that eating processed meats exposes you to at least three cancer-causing substances: nitrates and nitrites (leading to nitrosamines), heterocyclic amines, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

A review of more than 7,000 clinical studies examining the connection between diet and cancer came to a stark conclusion: No one should eat processed meats.

The World Cancer Research Fund came to the following conclusion:

"There is strong evidence that ... processed meats are causes of bowel cancer, and that there is no amount of processed meat that can be confidently shown not to increase risk ...Try to avoid processed meats such as bacon, ham, salami, corned beef and some sausages."

You are the only one who can make a decision when you are about to eat what you put in your body, today I invite you to be more aware not only about food but also, in everything you do in your life. I would love to hear your comments.

With Love, Health & Life,

Dr. Sandra Rangel

One of the top 10 cancer-causing foods

Processed Meats

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