Doctors have determined that what we eat directly affects our overall health. The body requires specific nutrients to perform its routine tasks. In addition, a healthy diet is associated with a reduced risk of have certain diseasesincluding cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer.

This was pointed out by researchers from Imperial College in London eating ultra-processed foods increases the risk of developing all types of cancer, specifically ovarian and brain cancer. The study was recently published in the journal eClinical MedicineTrusted Source.

What is ultra-processed food?

Ultra-processed foods form the fourth category of the NEW food classification system. According to this classification system, Food is considered ultra-processed if:

Some of these foods can be: soft drinks and “energy” or sports drinks, packaged cookies, sweets, prepared pizza and packaged meat, sweetened and flavored yogurts, “instant” soups, sweetened juices, pastries made from fats, emulsifiers and other additives.

Previous research shows that consumption of ultra-processed foods increases the risk of obesity and can accelerate a person’s biological aging.

For this study, researchers used UK Biobank records to analyze the diets of 200,000 middle-aged adults. Scientists examined the health participants in a period of 10 years, looking for if specifically they developed 34 different types of cancer.

After the review, the research team found that people with higher consumption of ultra-processed foods had a higher risk of developing cancer in general. For every 10% increase in ultra-processed food in a person’s diet, that person had a 2% higher risk of developing cancer overall.

Additionally, researchers found that for every 10% increase in ultra-processed food consumption, a person increased their overall risk of dying from cancer by 6%.

“The results of this study on overall cancer risk are consistent with what we know about the importance of a healthy diet in reducing cancer risk,” said Dr Eszter Vamos, senior clinical professor at Imperial College London’s School of Public Health. .