Raise your hand if you like a bologna sandwich. Well hang your head low as you read this article which discusses the dangers of eating ultraprocesssed foods or UPFs.
We all should know by now that cigarette smoking is a major risk factor for lung cancer, but scientists and researchers continue to look for other associations. Most recently researchers reviewed data from over 101,000 patients who were enrolled in a large screening trial looking for Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian cancers. The review of these patients was primarily focused on lung cancer and the impact that consumption of UPFs had on the incidence of lung cancer.
Patients who consumed the most UPFs were 41% more likely to develop lung cancer than the lowest consumption group. Possible explanations for this association include the fact that PFs are higher in sodium, saturated fats, added sugar and low fiber. Overall, lunchmeat was the greatest contributor to UPFs followed by caffeinated soft drinks (both diet and regular) and decaffeinated soft drinks (both diet and regular).
Now before you throw out the lunch meat in the refrigerator along with all the diet and regular soda, keep in mind that these were associations and a lot more work will need to be done before a direct causal relationship between UPFs and cancer can be considered definite. One confounding issue in this study was the factor of smoking. This was not considered in the observations. So, go ahead and have that sandwich but keep watching for more data.
