Another reason not to partake of junk food…

A prospective study in Europe looked at 471,495 individuals’ intake of junk food at baseline and then assessed the development of cancer over the next 15 years. Higher intake of junk food was associated with statistically significant increases of cancers of the colon-rectum, cancers of the upper aerodigestive tract and stomach, cancer of the lung in men, and postmenopausal breast and liver cancer in women.

One potential limitation of the study, published September 18, 2018,  is that junk food intake was assessed only once, at baseline, and may be a confounder for some other risk factor that is associated with the above cancers.

However, REAL food is likely always best: that is what we and our microbiomes evolved with. Think vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, berries, and quality sources of meat and fish.

Carolyn M. Matthews, MD; Director of Integrative and Functional Medicine, Baylor University Medical Center

Work Cited – Deschasaux, M. et al. Nutritional quality of food as represented by the FSAm-NPS nutrient profiling system underlying the Nutri-Score label and cancer risk in Europe: Results from the EPIC prospective cohort study. PLOS Med 15 (9):e1002651.doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed 1002651