Eating junk food linked to increased risk of many cancers

You probably already know that junk food, although delicious, is bad for you. It can have adverse health effects, such as increased risk of heart disease, metabolic disease and even cancer. Now researchers have used a new nutritional labeling system to associate a diet of low nutritional quality with increased risks of a number of types of cancers.

The Nutri-Score logo is based on the nutritional profile system of the UK Food Standards Agency, calculated for each food or drink using a 100 gram measure for energy (calories), sugar, saturated fatty acids, sodium, fiber and protein. The profiling system has been used in the UK to regulate food advertising for children since 2007.

The new Nutri-Score system with five-level nutritional coding, which calculates food quality using the same method as the British standard, is unique; unlike the British system, Nutri-Score uses both colors (from dark green to dark orange) and grades (from A for "highest nutritional quality" to E for "lowest nutritional quality") so that consumers can understand the quality of the food. a food at a glance.

As simple as it may be, the Nutri-Score system does not have adopted by the European Union or from other countries, according to Melanie Deschasaux and Mathilde Touvier, authors of a new study on the system and members of the research team in nutritional epidemiology of the Center for Research in Epidemiology and Statistics of the Sorbonne Paris Cité University.

Higher cancer risk

"The Nutri-Score has received official support from health authorities in France and more recently in Belgium. However, its application can not be mandatory because of the European Union's labeling regulations, "Deschasaux and Touvier explained in an e-mail. However, 33 food manufacturers and companies, including Danone, Fleury Michon and McCain, have begun voluntarily adopting the system.

According to the authors, this process of review and debate of the EU should occur later in the year, with the adoption and implementation of a system of 39, standard nutrition labeling for all EU countries. America, Canada and Australia.

The purpose of this new study, published in the journal PLOS Medicine on Tuesday, was to provide scientific evidence of the value of the British Food Standards Agency as the basis of the Nutri-Score system, Deschasaux and Touvier said.

The researchers examined diets of 471,495 adults from 10 European countries through the Nutri-Score lens. They used the British Nutrient Profiling System to calculate a Nutri-Score for the usual diet – the self-reported foods and drinks commonly consumed – from each participant.

A total score reflecting a diet of lower nutritional quality was associated with a higher risk of total cancer: the cancer rates among those with the highest scores were 81.4 cases per 10,000 person-years (separately, at men: 115.9). , 66.6), as against 69.5 cases per 10 000 person-years (89.6 for men and 61.1 for women) among those with the lowest scores of junk food. (Person-years are an estimate of time for all study participants, which allows researchers to measure the risk of cancer, regardless of how long a person has stayed in the study due to death or other factors.)

People who ate the most junk food had an increased risk of colorectal airways (lips, mouth, tongue, nose, throat, vocal cords and part of the esophagus and trachea) and cancers of the body. stomach. Separately, men had a higher risk of lung cancer and women had a higher risk of breast and post-menopausal cancer.

Since people who eat junk food may be overweight or exercise poorly, and both are cancer related, could the results of the study be due to other factors and no to a diet alone?

"These analyzes were adjusted for other individual characteristics that could confuse the nutrition-cancer association, such as physical activity and BMI, but also education, smoking, alcohol or family history of cancer, "writes CNN. The adjusted outcome allowed the researchers to conclude that "an inherent nutritional quality lower than the food consumed was associated with a higher risk of developing cancer."

"Overall, this adds support for the relevance of the use [the British nutritional system] as the underlying nutritional profile system for the Nutri-Score Nutri-Score nutrition label, "wrote Deschasaux and Touvier.

Protective effects of a good diet

Gerardo G. Mackenzie, an assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition at the University of California at Davis, said that one of the virtues of this new study was the large number of participants. Finding, again in a study of many people, that eating junk food increases the risk of cancer corroborates all previous research by saying the same thing.

Mackenzie, who was not involved in the new research, recommended that consumers follow as many recommendations as possible from the Global Fund for Cancer Research / American Institute for Cancer Research. One of the recommendations: Limit junk food.

"Each of these recommendations has proven to have a beneficial protective effect," Mackenzie said. "It is not one who will provide the benefit but many of them" as a whole.

Mackenzie added that more research is needed to understand precisely how high body mass, low physical activity, and excessive consumption of alcohol can thwart good nutrition.

Deschasaux and Touvier concluded: "The association between nutrition and cancer (as well as other chronic diseases) is not new." While there are others risk factors, nutrition is among the most important. be targeted by public health policies. "