Scientists Link Foods with Low Nutritional Quality to Higher Cancer Risk

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As a validation for the statement of nutritionists which says foods are medicines, a new study conducted by French scientists has found that people who regularly eat foods with low nutritional quality have a higher risk of developing cancer.

The study published in the journal PLOS Medicine, explained the importance of proper food labelling, as it called on agencies saddled with the obligation of food monitoring to compel manufacturers to comply with the rule of proper labelling of foods.

According to the report published on Medical News Today, the British Food Standards Agency developed their nutrient profiling system (FSAm-NPS) as a way to ensure that people are able to clearly see what the nutritional value is of any food product, but in Nigeria, though NAFDAC is trying to enforce this rule, but it has been observed that some manufacturers are not complying.

The research, conducted by Mélanie Deschasaux, at the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research in Paris, in collaboration with specialists from numerous other research institutions, analyzed data collected from 471,495 participants from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition.

Some of the information collected from participants included their dietary habits as well as other relevant medical information, including cancer history, while the middle investigation period was 15.3 years.

“Of all the participants, 49,794 had been diagnosed with cancer, of whom 12,063 had breast cancer, 6,745 had prostate cancer, and 5,806 had colorectal cancer”, the investigation revealed.

Based on the information provided, the scientists calculated the associations between foods with various nutritional qualities and the risk of developing cancer.

More specifically, regular consumption of foods with low nutritional quality was associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer and cancer of the upper aerodigestive tract and stomach, as well as with lung cancer in the case of men.

The findings further emphasised particularly for women, that eating foods that are low in nutrients is tied to a higher risk of liver cancer as well as postmenopausal breast cancer.