Ultra-processed foods 'linked to cancer

Those last two words 'Initial Insight' made me think 'Oh Wow! How long is it going to take the boffins to admit that processed foods cause ill health?'. I'm left feeling quite saddened by this.

@Guzzler it will take as long as the boffins don't listen to us! Instead of looking at studies of people who eat over processed rubbish and the effect on them, they need to be looking at people who eat real healthy food and seeing the health benefits.

There may well be a link between "ultra processed" food and cancer but this study doesn't seem to prove anything.

Mr_Pot said:

There may well be a link between "ultra processed" food and cancer but this study doesn't seem to prove anything.

Click to expand...

Maybe not but as it has got front page attention, it can't be a bad thing to get people thinking that a diet of "ultra processed" food could be avoided every day.

This survey is a sweeping generalisation of about 200 different products. We can all come up with these; how about “If it’s not mentioned in the bible then it’s bad for you”

Firstly it is a French study, so we can ignore it when we leave the EU? I found the takeaway quote "A lot of caution is being expressed about the study, but experts said a healthy diet is best." to be the most worrying. On the TV discussion they were advising not to change away from the established eating guidance, i.e. Eatwell. Whilst the Experts remain unchallenged, then any reseach is liable to be shot down in flames if it does not support the established regime.

Note: the study only established a weak correlation, which is not the same, or taken as implying, causation. Chicken / egg springs to mind. The only comment I have is that recent research is showing cancer needs glucose as fuel, and starving a cancer of this may lead to an eventual effective treatment, but it is early days. So there may be substance in their report after all.

There has also been recent research showing that some cancer cells need high levels of insulin to grow...

This steady has shown once again that people who do all of their own cooking are at lower risk of long-term illness - but it will never be possible to prove using this type of study if the good health is due to home cooking, or something else (maybe unknown) that people who cook their own food have in common.