There are Carcinogenic foods Which despite their harmful effects on health are eaten daily, such as sugary soft drinks, industrial pastries, meat, slaughter, milk and others that I will mention below.
In a society like ours, where the rhythms are getting faster, it is very tempting to choose a type of food precooked, fast and processed.
However, in this same society, there is more and more information about the impact of what we eat daily in the development of many diseases, including the development of tumors.
More and more people know what foods help us to prevent it and Lead a healthy life , And also those that, on the other hand, are more harmful and that in the long term, can create in our organism the appropriate conditions for the development of several types of cancer.
How does what we eat interact with our body by increasing or decreasing this level of risk?
Thanks to the studies of the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), some of the main mechanisms that govern the relationship between food and disease have been identified.
Knowing both the foods that protect us and those that put us at risk is the first step to choosing a healthy and balanced diet.
Paracelsus , Doctor and alchemist of the sixteenth century, said a phrase that can serve as a guide:
"The dose makes the poison"
This means that it is the daily and constant use of some foods that raises the risk of developing some types of cancers, not sporadic use.
It is always better to avoid consumption when you can, to give space to a food as balanced and natural as possible.
10 dangerously carcinogenic foods
Today I want to pay attention to 10 foods that are considered bad for our health because of their carcinogenic power.
1- Soft drinks and industrial fruit juices
Commercial drinks, gassed and non-carbonated soft drinks, even the fruit juices that are usually given to children for snacking, are very bad foods for our health if taken daily.
Why? Because they contain a very high amount of sugar.
Note that a can of cola has 27 grams of sugar, which equals nine full spoons.
Why is it so bad to take so much sugar? What happens in our body?
When we drink a coke, for example, the blood sugar levels suddenly increase. This triggers the production, on the part of our pancreas, of insulin , A hormone that plays an important role in the relationship between food and cancer.
When we produce too much insulin, at the same time, there is a high production in women of testosterone, a male sex hormone.
It also favors the production of a growth factor, called IGF-I , Which works as if it were a true fertilizer for cancer cells.
Some malignant tumors, such as breast cancer, are very sensitive to the combined action of these two factors: sex hormones and growth factors.
Learning to use low sugar is the first custom we should incorporate into our daily lives as the first prevention against tumors.
Many people are unaware of the harmful effect of fruit juices, innocently thinking that they can replace a correct supply of fresh fruit.
Error! Industrial fruit juices, apart from having a high dose of sugar, also contain fewer vitamins and antioxidants than true fruit.
Besides being processed, they are elaborated and modified in their original structure, they are added many preservatives and they lose all the necessary nutrients to maintain a good nutritious and health state.
2- Industrial bakery
I mean all products processed both sweet (donuts, muffins, cookies...) and salted (crackers, chips, cookies...).
The reasons for considering them enemies of our health lies in its content of:
- refined flours
- hydrogenated fats
Preservatives
All the processed foods Are made with white flour, including the common bread that we usually buy at the bakery.
The white flour is thus because it has undergone an industrial process called refining, in which the cereal (in this case wheat) is removed from the outside, which is the one that contains fiber and the micronutrients (antioxidants, vitamins, minerals ).
Micronutrients have important functions: they enhance immune defenses, reduce inflammatory processes and protect cells from free radicals .
In addition, the fiber contained in whole grains favors the proper functioning of the digestive system, protecting us from cardiovascular diseases and colon cancer. At the end of this process the cereal only stays with starch (sugar) and proteins.
The result of all this is that the food in question loses almost completely its nutritional value acting in our organism as a trigger factor the whole process of the insulin of which I spoke to you above.
All industrial products, both sweet and salty, in addition, have in common the presence of many fats hydrogenated or trans fats. As the name suggests are fats that form when vegetable oil hardens in a process called hydrogenation.
These types of fats do not exist in nature and are harmful to health because they can raise levels of bad cholesterol in the blood and can also lower levels of Good cholesterol (HDL). They also alter the permeability of the fluids and the permeability of the membranes of the cells and favor the formation of free radicals.
These fats are found in most commercial baked goods (fried rosquitas, cupcakes and cookies), processed foods and some margarines.
Many commercials make us believe that margarine, for example, is lighter and healthier in butter, without reporting the high presence of trans fats.
It is important to read nutritional information labels on foods, which will help you know what types of fats they contain and how much.
Finally, we must not forget the high presence of preservatives that abound in all types of processed and industrial foods.
Not all are toxic and harmful to health, however others ( Benzoic acid And its salts known as parabens) if they are if taken in high amounts.
3- Meat
Every time we hear more talk about the toxicity of meat, especially red. But why is it best to avoid it? The answer is very simple.
First, the meat we eat today is not the same as the one we ate 50 years ago. By this I mean that industrial meat production promotes a system of raising animals (which we will eat later) a little healthy and balanced.
The meat that fills our supermarkets comes from animals that have been given hormones and antibiotics and, when we eat, we take these substances as well.
Red meat, in addition, is rich in saturated fat. These fats increase the risk of cancer because they make you fat and, in large quantities, make it difficult for the insulin to work properly.
Another factor that makes meat dangerous is the way we cook it, which turns out to be crucial. Meat is usually cooked using high temperatures (oven, barbecue, iron, boiled), which cause the formation of dangerous substances such as Heterocyclic amines , Which are considered very carcinogenic and related to cancer of the intestine and breast.
On the other hand, the fumes generated by drops of fat, release volatile compounds (aromatic hydrocarbons) highly carcinogenic as the Benzopyrene , Impregnating the food.
The combination of heat, smoke and meat also produces dioxins, another carcinogen.
These substances are also found in roasted chicken and grilled fish, accumulating in the most superficial part. For this reason it is very important to always remove the skin from chicken and fish.
4- Slaughterhouses
You have heard several times the news that the slaughter (chorizo, salami, sausage, ham etc) is highly carcinogenic.
The reason lies in the substances that are used to preserve them, being one of the most powerful known carcinogenic substances. We are talking about nitrates and nitrites.
Nitrates are usually quite innocuous, but they can turn into niritos, substances that have the ability to stick to hemoglobin, making it unable to transport oxygen into the blood.
Nitrites also have the ability to react with amines, substances contained in proteins, giving rise to highly carcinogenic substances called Nitrosamines .
5- Milk
Milk is always associated with the idea of health, growth and well-being, being a reality for a child in the first months of his life.
However for an adult person milk is not as beneficial as we think. Several studies have shown that it increases the production of IGF-I growth factor, responsible for the proliferation of cancer cells.
It must be taken into account that the human being is the only mammal that continues to drink milk when it is adult.
However, as nature is very wise, the production of Lactase enzyme , Responsible for the digestion of lactose (milk sugar), lowers or disappears with age. This is the reason why many adults have lactose intolerance: simply the activity of this enzyme is very reduced.
Milk additionally, although it has a great contribution of calcium, if it is consumed in excess it promotes that the natural pH of our organism becomes more acidic by the contribution of animal proteins.
This triggers a mechanism that our body activates so that the pH returns to its normal value. How? Using calcium from the bones as a pH regulator, causing, in the long term, osteoporosis.
6- Fitos
During the frying process, a highly toxic and carcinogenic substance, called Acrylamide , Which gives the food the typical golden look.
Acrylamide is also formed in other types of cooking, such as the oven or grilled.
Other dangerous substances, which form when fried, are aldehydes. These toxic compounds appear in some oils when they are heated to the frying temperature. For this reason it is very important not to reheat the oils that we have previously used, being very careful that they do not generate smoke when we heat them.
In fact, aldehydes are also present in the fume of oils and it is very easy to incorporate these substances into our body simply by inhaling them.
The results of many studies reveal that sunflower and flax oils, especially the first, are the ones that generate more toxic aldehydes and in less time.
Conversely, the olive oil , Which has a higher concentration of monounsaturated acids (such as oleic), generates less and later these harmful compounds.
7- Light foods
With this m And I refer to all products where the writing"Light"or"Sugar free"appears.
It is very easy to fall into the trap that these foods are healthier than those who have sugar, for all the mechanisms that I have explained to you before. However it is not so.
Light drinks, for example, contain chemicals such as artificial sweeteners (saccharin, aspartame) that have a harmful impact on our health, because they can cause metabolic disturbances that cause an increase in blood sugar.
As I told you at the beginning of this article, a high blood sugar concentration is associated with the sudden and massive production of insulin, which in turn is linked to the production of hormones related to the proliferation of cancer cells.
A bad habit of the modern society in which we live, is the uncontrolled consumption of light drinks, with"zero"calories.
Recent studies have linked colon cancer to its consumption, especially in obese people.
8- Microwave Popcorn
Popcorn is not a risk food. However, those that come in bags ready to microwave, if they are dangerous.
The bag in the come almost all varieties of microwave popcorn, is filled with perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA).
This chemical is the same toxic material found in teflon pots and pans. It can remain in the environment and in the human body for long periods of time.
Several experiments on laboratory animals have proven that this chemical, once heated, is related to infertility, cancer and other diseases.
9- Canned
Who does not buy food in cans? It is very comfortable, ready for use and is retained in time. The problem of this type of food can be contaminated by many chemical compounds contained in the walls of the cans.
For example the majority of those who conserve legumes (Lentils, beans, chickpeas), have a coating of a resin containing the Bisphenol A , Carcinogenic.
It is advisable to choose food preserved in glass jars and avoid buying the cans.
10- Alcohol
The basic molecule of all alcoholic beverages is ethanol, which is characterized by its high toxicity and carcinogenic potential.
When we have a drink, ethanol is absorbed very quickly by our body: 5% in the mouth, 15% in the stomach and 80% in the small intestine.
When you exceed two glasses a day for men and one for women, it has been proven that the risk of developing cancer increases, especially the digestive system.
And what other cancer foods do you know?