10% increase in the risk of developing cancer with the consumption of “ultra-processed” foods according to a French study on 104,980 people. These foods are a creation of the food industry: they no longer have anything to do with what we find in nature.
Frozen foods, fruity yogurts, snacks, ready meals, frozen or not … an avalanche of products “ultra-processed” by the food industry occupies a very large place in the shelves of our supermarkets and on our plates.
Addition of salt, sugar, preservatives, fats, many additives (sodium nitrite, titanium dioxide …), all these components alter or destroy the nutritional qualities of foods which are widely consumed in France and in the world. The industrial processes used also destroy the fibers normally found in foods, also reducing the final amount of fiber consumed in the diet.
A new study, carried out in France (NutriNet-Santé cohort), associating researchers from Inserm, Inra and the University of Paris 13 and published in the British Medical Journal suggests that the consumption of so-called “ultra-processed” foods increases the increased risk of cancer: a 10% increase in ultra-processed foods in the diet is thus associated with a 12% increase in the overall risk of cancer and 11% risk of breast cancer. No significant association is found for colon or prostate cancer.
According to a report by INSEE, the share of ultra-processed meat, fish and vegetable products has more than doubled in recent years, reaching 41% in 2006 in France, to the detriment of products requiring more personal preparation. Today, it represents 80% of our food consumption.
Junk food paves the way for breast cancer
The eating habits of 104,980 French people, on average 43 years old, were followed for 8 years, between 2009 and 2017: 228 cases of cancer were diagnosed (108 fatalities and 739 of the breast). The people followed in the NutriNet-Santé cohort filled out an online questionnaire over 24 hours at least twice to assess the consumption of 3,300 different foods.
A 10% increase in the proportion of ultra-processed foods in the diet is associated with a 6-18% increase in the risk of developing cancer in general and a 2-22% increase in the risk of breast cancer. More specifically, “ultra-processed fats and sauces and sugary products and drinks are associated with an increased risk of cancer overall, and ultra-processed sweet products were associated with a risk of breast cancer,” according to the authors.
Consumption of ultra-processed foods and risk of #Cancer : 1 first study which alerts but which must be confirmed by other investigations https://t.co/6CfvYUSCIN pic.twitter.com/ZaHJeAvuBl
– Inserm (@Inserm) Feb. 15, 2018
Presentation of these so-called “ultra-processed” foods
The “ultra-processed” category of the international Nova classification includes: sweets, desserts, ready meals, aperitif cakes, sugary drinks, processed meats such as dumplings or nuggets, industrial soups, pasta or still frozen meals. Basically, all products processed with the addition of a preservative that is not salt (nitrites …). According to the Nova classification (recognized by the FAO and the Pan American Health Organization) which lists foods according to their degree of industrial processing, they are all ultra-processed.
Also included in this category are spreads, cakes, energy bars, sausages, reconstituted fish, certain brands of cereals, fruit drinks, fruit yogurts, hamburgers, hot dogs, packaged breads, margarine or even infant formulas (small jars, mash, etc.). Globally, ultra-processed foods are those that cannot be found in nature. They are a creation of the agro-food industry. All these foods are loaded with sugars and calories and are at the same time not very satiating, that is to say that they do not give a feeling of satiety and tend to be consumed more.
The lifestyle of a busy society
The success of these products lies mainly in the fact that they are inexpensive and easy to consume. A significant advantage in a busy society obsessed with deadlines, saving time and instant results. Today, ultra-processed foods contribute more than half of the energy intake of France, Germany, Spain, the United States and the United Kingdom.
By its authors’ own admission, this observational study is only a first step and “deserves careful and more detailed exploration. The cause and effect link” remains to be demonstrated “, nuances Inserm, in the absence of direct intervention on diet Other factors may come into play such as “for example, smoking and low physical activity” which “were much more prevalent among participants who ate a higher proportion of food. ultra-processed “, although the analysis was adjusted taking these factors into account.
The agro-food industry rushed into the breach to put the results into perspective. But taking confounding factors into account means that the researchers took into account in their statistical analysis the possible impact of other factors that may themselves be responsible for cancer. This is called an “adjustment”. Of course, this is not a comparative prospective study between the consumption of natural products and ultra-processed products, and no one will pay to make one, and especially not the agro-food industry, but it is a very large study, extended over 8 years, on a well-identified population from a French register with scientifically well-designed dietary analyzes. The results must therefore be seriously taken into account, especially as they converge with other studies.
Why are they dangerous for health?
In his book “Stop ultra-processed foods! Eat real”, Dr. Anthony Fardet, researcher in preventive and holistic nutrition, draws a parallel between industrial food and the prevalence of chronic diseases. It also defines ultra-processed foods as products “which we cannot even recognize the natural origin so much (their) matrix is modified”. So not to be confused with minimally processed foods, normally processed products and ultra-processed products.
“We must realize that the explosion of chronic diseases in Western countries has been concomitant with the massive arrival of ultra-processed foods in supermarkets since the 1980s” he explains. According to him, the visual aspect of these products is designed to appeal to consumers. “Industries are looking to restore ultra-processed foods to a taste and color lost in the destructuring process. This is part of the reason why they are packed with additives.” But this is probably not the only cause: the addition of substances, some of which are toxic (sodium nitrite, titanium dioxide, etc.), packaging which can release toxic substances (bisphenol A in plastic packaging. ..) and the modification of the intestinal flora, the microbiota, are probably involved in these problems.
In the end, Dr. Fardet advises not to consume more than two servings of ultra-processed foods per day: “I am not fiercely opposed to it. Simply, I think that we must be aware that we must above all not abuse it at the risk of falling victim to various chronic ailments “. Nutriscore is all the more necessary, but certainly not enough.
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