Doctors are alarmed about a rise in cancer among younger adults. Some believe that both junk food and processed food may be to blame.
"We advise that people eat less overly processed, high in saturated fat, sugar, and salt food," Matthew Lambert, a nutritionist and the health information and promotion manager at the World Cancer Research Fund, told the Daily Mail this week. "This includes food like cakes, biscuits, pastries, [chips], sugar-sweetened drinks, and fast food like pizza and burgers."
In particular, doctors say they noticed an increase in young adults getting cancer. They're seeing a higher number of cases in adults in their 30s. "It's been pretty alarming to all of us," Dr. Coral Olazagasti, assistant professor of clinical medical oncology at the University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, told The New York Post.
"In the past, you would think cancer was a disease of the elderly population," she added. "But now we've been seeing trends in recent years of people getting diagnosed with cancer earlier and earlier."
Processed Food Leads To Higher Cancer Risk?
Professor Charles Swanton spoke to the American Society of Clinical Oncology about how gut bacteria plays a role in bowel cancer. "What we are seeing in some studies is some tumors from patients with early-onset colorectal cancer harbor mutations that might be initiated by these microbial species," said Swanton, oncologist and chief clinician at Cancer Research UK.
Meanwhile, Lambert urged against eating processed food. Lambert said, "These types of food have no fiber and contain virtually no essential nutrients. They should only be eaten occasionally and in small amounts."
According to the Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine, processed food is linked to a 24% higher risk in esophagus cancer. The World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer considers processed meat carcinogenic. A 2015 study found people who eat processed food daily are at a 40% higher risk to develop bowel cancer. This is in comparison to those who eat it once a week or less than that.
"Consumption of foods containing nitrate or nitrite preservatives, smoked or charred foods, and red meat have clear associations with cancer risk," Dr. Nicholas DeVito, an assistant professor of medical oncology at Duke University Medical Center, wrote.
DeVito also blames poor dieting for an increase in cancer risk.
