A study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that 77% of grocery store purchases were made up of processed foods, with about 61 percent of purchases being “ultra-processed” foods. This indicates that the average American ingests more than 1,000 calories a day of processed foods. In the UK, they fare slightly better, with a study showing 51% of their diet is made up of “ultra-processed” foods.

Ultra-processed foods are foods with man-made ingredients, food additives invented by food technologists.

Related: Start Eating Like That and Start Eating Like This – Your Guide to Homeostasis Through Diet

Research by global nutrition experts shows how our food has evolved from real food too salty, refined, artificially flavored, chemically preserved foods like sugary cereals, industrially-made breads, desserts, sugar-laden microwaveable meals, instant noodles, reconstituted heavily processed meats, and sweetened (or chemically sweetened) soft drinks, etc.

A new study that’s making waves in the medical community shows that a 10% increase in consumption of ultra-processed foods correlates with a 12% increase in overall cancer rates and an 11% increase in breast cancers. The study, led by researchers based at the Sorbonne in Paris, looked at eating habits and the medical records of nearly 105,000 adults.

‘Examples of NOVA Group 4 foods include “mass produced packaged breads and buns; sweet or savoury packaged snacks; industrialised confectionery and desserts; sodas and sweetened drinks; meat balls, poultry and fish nuggets, and other reconstituted meat products transformed with addition of preservatives other than salt (for example, nitrites); instant noodles and soups; frozen or shelf stable ready meals; and other food products made mostly or entirely from sugar, oils and fats, and other substances not commonly used in culinary preparations such as hydrogenated oils, modified starches, and protein isolates’ – in short, many of the foods sold in supermarkets.” – BMJ 2018;360:k322

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Sources:

• Consumption of ultra-processed foods and cancer risk: results from NutriNet-Santé prospective cohort – The BMJ
• Over half US grocery store purchases are highly processed foods, says study – Fox News
• ‘Ultra-processed’ products now half of all UK family food purchases – The Guardian

Eating out makes significant contributions to the obesity epidemic worldwide, and a new study has found eating restaurant meals also leaves you more open to phthalate exposure. What are phthalates and why does this matter?

Phthalates are a chemical added to plastics to make them flexible. They are commonly found in shower curtains, moisturizer, perfumes, hard packaging, and various plastic containers, but testing has also found them in milk and spices. They’ve been linked to cancer, obesity, type 2 diabetes and endocrine disruption. They’ve been banned in children’s products in the U.S., and the Centers for Disease Control has issued recommendations for further study of the chemicals. This new study found that people who regularly ate at restaurants, fast food places, and cafeterias had levels of phthalates 35 percent higher than those who only consumed food at home. Senior author Ami Zota, an assistant professor of environmental and occupational health at Milken Institute School of Public Health (Milken Institute SPH) at the George Washington University says,

This study suggests food prepared at home is less likely to contain high levels of phthalates, chemicals linked to fertility problems, pregnancy complications and other health issues…Our findings suggest that dining out may be an important and previously under-recognized source of exposure to phthalates for the U.S. population.”

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Phthalates and Food

Researchers from George Washington University and the University of California Berkeley and San Francisco examined data collected from 10, 253 people during 2005 to 2014 from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. While findings indicated there was an increase in phthalate levels overall in those who routinely ate out, the study identified teenagers as particularly vulnerable. Adolescents who consumed most of their food outside of the house experienced phthalate levels 55 percent higher than peers who ate at home. That dramatic increase may have long-reaching effects, as adolescents are one of a few populations particularly susceptible to hormone disruptors, as lead author of the study Dr. Julia Varshavsky, of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health notes.

Pregnant women, children, and teens are more vulnerable to the toxic effects of hormone-disrupting chemicals, so it’s important to find ways to limit their exposures…”

Phthalates do not bond to the plastics they make flexible, so they are especially problematic when paired with hot food, as heat is one way to remove them from the plastics. Some phthalates are also fat-soluble, leaving milk and other lipid-rich foods a likely source of them.

Phthalates have been banned for specific uses, and government reports, like the Chronic Hazard Advisory Panel (Chap) on Phthalates have actually made it clear that they are harmful to human health. Yet they are still in a large variety of products, especially those that are absorbed into the body through digestion or the skin. There are other alternatives available, like natural polymers or bio-plasticizers based on vegetable oils, though these other options are expensive. It’s unlikely that dining establishments, especially those focused more on profit margins, will be willing to make the switch without significant pressure.

Sources

• Dietary sources of cumulative phthalates exposure among the U.S. general population in NHANES 2005–2014 – Environment International
• What Are Phthalates? Dining Out ‘Raises Level Of Chemicals Linked To Cancer’ – Newsweek
• Phthalates are everywhere, and the health risks are worrying. How bad are they really? – The Guardian

A new report, titled Compendium of Scientific, Medical and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking is the most authoritative study that’s ever been done on fracking and how it is contaminating the air and water – and imperiling the health of millions of us.

Our examination of the peer-reviewed medical and public health literature uncovered no evidence that fracking can be practiced in a manner that does not threaten human health.”

This report looked at news investigations, government assessments, and more than a thousand peer-reviewed research articles. The study shows that fracking is poisoning our air, contaminating the groundwater, and putting our health of at risk.

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Just How Bad is fracking? Why?

Dr. Sandra Steingraber is a biologist and one of the co-authors. She’s been a public health advocate on issues like breast cancer and toxic incinerators. She says that “Fracking is the worst thing I’ve ever seen.”

Those of us in the public health sector started to realize years ago that there were potential risks, then the industry rolled out faster than we could do our science. Now we see those risks have turned into human harms and people are getting sick. And we in this field have a moral imperative to raise the alarm.” –Dr. Steingraber, Rolling Stone

Fracking is a complicated extraction process with public health hazards at virtually every part of the process. If you want to read it, click here to read the report, and then click the download button to view the PDF.

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Residents living near an active fracking site breathe in carcinogens like benzene and formaldehyde. THis leads to an increased risk of asthma and leads to developmental disorders and problems with pregnancies.

Pregnant women have a major risk, not only themselves but they’re carrying a fetus whose cells are multiplying continuously. If those cells get hit by some toxic chemical from fracking, it may not manifest itself for years.” – Dr. Lynn Ringenberg, president-elect of Physicians for Social Responsibility

Fracking sites have caught fire some have even exploded, as happened last month in Belmont County, Ohio. Communities have shown that fracking contaminates underground aquifers with hazardous chemicals. Fracked gas travels through pipelines, and leaks and explosions are now well-documented. Piped gas has to continuously be re-pressurized at compressor stations, and those stations have been documented to emit toxic gases and fine particle matter like methane, benzene, formaldehyde and other known human carcinogens. 

Dr. Kathleen Nolan is a co-author of the report. She’s a pediatrician and bioethicist. Dr. Nolan has examined people who have been sickened by fracking. She describes a case of one western Pennsylvania family:

They would see a yellow fog, kind of like a chemical mist coming from the compressor station. Their two youngest children, nine and 11, started having tics where their muscles would go into spasms, those spasms would persist even when they were asleep.”

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Of course, Scott Pruit, our head of the EPA who’s always wanting to be on the wrong side of history, is a big fan of Fracking.

For more on the dangers of fracking:

A new study of over 100,000 people’s eating habits in France found that a 10 percent increase in consumption of ultra-processed foods resulted in a 12 percent increase some cancers, confirming yet again that diet is a key component in disease prevention. Ultra-processed foods include soda, mass-produced bread, sweets, processed meats, and prepackaged meals, and this is the first scientific study to strongly link them to cancer. The study also established a massive database of the additives in specific foods, including commercial names and brands. The NutriNet-Santé cohort study concludes, “Further studies are also needed to better understand the relative effect of nutritional composition, food additives, contact materials, and neoformed contaminants in this relation. Rapidly increasing consumption of ultra-processed foods may drive an increasing burden of cancer and other non-communicable diseases.”

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Global Patterns

Let’s look at breast cancer. Common reasons given for the rise in breast cancer diagnoses include age, stress, obesity, lack of exercise, and having children later in life. Lifestyle choices are usually mentioned, but specific aspects of diet and lifestyle aren’t discussed. With this study, researchers noticed an increase of greater than 10 percent in the rates of breast cancer in response to ultra-processed food. This link mirrors trends happening throughout the world. Rapidly industrializing regions all over the world are all seeing a rapid rise in the incidences of breast cancer in conjunction with the increased presence of pre-packaged foods.

China

Since 2000, cases of breast cancer in China have increased by an average of 3.5 percent per year. Due to the country’s intense industrialization, rates of diagnosis are higher in cities than in rural areas. The move to urban areas has also increased the consumption of quick and easy to prepare pre-packaged meals and junk food offerings from Western companies like Kraft, Nestlé, and PepsiCo. Fast food sales are also a cause for concern, rising an average of 13 percent annually.

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Central and South America

The majority of the Western hemisphere is a large region, but the circumstances are remarkably similar. There were over 140,000 new cases of breast cancer reported in 2012, and estimates predict that number will increase 70 percent by the year 2030. The growth in cancer rates comes at a time when these countries are being inundated by gigantic multinational corporations that specialize in ultra-processed food like Nestlé and Coca-Cola. Fast food chains are also expanding aggressively in the region.

Why Is That?

Ultra-processed foods contain large amounts of fat, sugar, and additives, and have been tied to obesity, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. It’s difficult to know whether the fat, sugar or additives are responsible for ultra-processed food’s link to cancer, as many additives, colorings, and sweeteners in those foods are linked to asthma, skin conditions, vomiting, intestinal distress, inflammation, autoimmune disorders, depression, fatigue, diabetes, periodontal disease, and hyperactivity, among other things. Taken individually, the ingredients in these foods constitute serious health concerns.

Who knows what happens when a product contains more than one of these additives together? We don’t. Until now, no one has been doing that science.

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The Cumulative Effect

Although the sales of processed and packaged foods are declining in the United States, these items still account for over half of all calories consumed in the country. They’re beginning to account for a much larger percentage of the world’s diet than ever before.

Even as deaths from breast cancer decrease, the number of diagnoses continues to rise. Improved standards of care account for fewer deaths, but incidences of cancer continue to increase because those standards don’t address the reason this is happening – our diet. This study is the first to make that connection and the first study that saw a definite increase in breast cancer in correlation with increased processed food consumption.

If we want to manage our health care system, we must manage our food system. They are the same thing.

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• How to Cure Lyme Disease, and Virtually Any Other Bacterial Infection, Naturally

Sources:

• Ultra-processed foods may be linked to cancer, says study – The Guardian
• Consumption of ultra-processed foods and cancer risk: results from NutriNet-Santé prospective cohort – BMJ 
• China Will Consume More Processed Food Than the U.S. by 2015– The Atlantic
• What’s behind the huge increase in breast cancer rates in China? – The Conversation
• How Big Business Got Brazil Hooked on Junk Food – New York Times
• Female breast cancer in Central and South America – Science Direct
• How to Read Food Labels and Avoid Toxic Ingredients – Organic Lifestyle Magazine 

Scientists at Norway’s University of Bergen found that using toxic cleaning products has as much of an impact on health as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.

The study tracked 6,000 people, with an average age of 34 at the time of enrollment in the study, who used the cleaning products over a period of two decades, according to the research published in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.Lung function declined in women who regularly used cleaning products. They, such as those who worked as cleaners, was equivalent over the period to those with a 20-cigarette daily smoking habit.

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While the short-term effects of cleaning chemicals on asthma are becoming increasingly well documented, we lack knowledge of the long-term impact. We feared that such chemicals, by steadily causing a little damage to the airways day after day, year after year, might accelerate the rate of lung function decline that occurs with age.” – Dr. Cecile Svanes, professor at the University of Bergen in Norway, senior author of the study.

Must Read: How To Heal Your Gut

The study measured lung function by testing the amount of air the subjects could forcefully breathe out. They examined the results alongside a questionnaire where participants were asked about they use cleaning products. The study found that women who used the cleaning products regularly have decreased lung capacity and an increased rate of asthma. The products seemed to affect women more than men, though the scientists noted that the number of male participants was limited. The mode of chemical cleaner—be it spray or other liquid—was not statistically relevant, only that a chemical cleaner was used.

When you think of inhaling small particles from cleaning agents that are meant for cleaning the floor and not your lungs, maybe it is not so surprising after all.” – Øistein Svanes, a doctoral student.

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• Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included
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• Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones

Have you ever wondered if your mobile phone is giving you cancer? Legally speaking, there is a link. Of course, that’s only true if you live in Italy.

Studies of the effects that cell phones have on the brain or examinations of the link between phone usage and certain cancers don’t have the same clarity. Where many studies find regular cell phone usage contributes greatly to the risk of cancer and brain tumors, other research finds the device benign. The Italian verdict is one of the first positive acknowledgments of that link. Much of that can be attributed to the Italian court’s refusal to consider studies funded by telecom industries,  but realistically there are too many variables to specifically link cellphone use to a specific condition. It is incredibly likely that cellphones are making us sick. However, they are only one aspect of a modern life designed without human health in mind.

Precedence Has Been Established

The court in the Italian town of Ivrea released an April 11th ruling ordering that a businessman receive a state-funded pension after too much phone use for work caused him to develop a benign brain tumor and resulted in the loss of his hearing. Rumors and theories surrounding the dangers of cell phone usage has swirled for years, and this is a big deal. The Italian courts had previously accepted the case of a sales manager who was on a cellphone five or six hours a day, that was subsequently rejected by a trial court. This paved the way for this ruling, as lawyers for the plaintiff, Stefano Bertone and Renato Ambrosio, pointed out “For the first time in the world, a court has recognised a causal link between inappropriate use of a mobile phone and a brain tumour…” While the court ruling is still subject to an appeal, the plaintiff in the case, Roberto Romeo, will receive 500 euros per month to be paid by INAIL, a national insurance scheme covering workplace accidents.

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So How Much is Too Much?

Cell phones have been woven into the fabric of modern life and telling people to avoid them at all costs is not realistic. But there has to be a point at which more damage has been done that the body can recover from. In the case of the plaintiff in the Italian case, Roberto Romeo, he was required to use his company mobile phone for 3 to 4 hours of every working day for 15 years. A rat study found that rats exposed to cell phone radiation nine hours a day for a two year period were more likely to develop malignant brain tumors. Another paper found that a mere 30 minutes a day of cell phone over a ten year period increased the risk of gliomas (a malignant tumor in the brain that occurs on the side of the head) by 40 percent. Yet several other significant studies have found no causal link between cellphones and brain damage, although both the U.S. and the U.K. are in the process of conducting further long-term studies.

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Why Don’t We Have A Definitive Answer

There are many things that modern society will ignore in the name of progress, even past the point at which something needs to be done. Cell phones are an area with lots of fingers in lots of pies, and the conflicting narratives presented by these studies reinforce that. There is also science’s inability to keep up with phone technology. Before researchers have time conduct long-term studies, phone configurations have changed enough for either side to proclaim the findings of any study out of date.

Is there a clear link between cell phones and brain tumors? After eliminating all telecom funded studies, an Italian court decided there is.

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Sources:

• Do Cellphones Cause Brain Cancer or Not? – The Atlantic 
• How Safe Are Cell Phones? – Toronto Sun
• Mobile phones cause lethal type of brain cancer, major study expected to declare – What Doctors Don’t Tell You
• Brain Tumour Charity cautious about Italy mobile phone ruling – BBC
• How Cellphones Can Cause Brain Tumors and Trigger Chronic Disease – Dr. Mercola

A nine-year study by scientists in Belgium found that excess sugar consumption stimulates tumor growth and increases your risk of cancer. Scientists focused on the Warburg Effect, a phenomenon where cancer cells consume glucose and turn it into tumor-feeding lactic acid. According to one of the study’s researchers, Professor Johan Thevelein:

Our research reveals how the hyperactive sugar consumption of cancerous cells leads to a vicious cycle of continued stimulation of cancer development and growth. Thus, it is able to explain the correlation between the strength of the Warburg effect and tumor aggressiveness. This link between sugar and cancer has sweeping consequences. Our results provide a foundation for future research in this domain, which can now be performed with a much more precise and relevant focus.”

Related: Healthy Sugar Alternatives & More

The study used yeast cells to examine the connection between Ras protein activity and the sugar metabolism in yeast. Ras proteins send important signals controlling growth between cells, and mutated versions of these genes are frequently found in tumors. In this study, excess sugar caused the yeast tested to produce overactive Ras proteins.

Professor Thevelein summarized the study,

The main advantage of using yeast was that our research was not affected by the additional regulatory mechanisms of mammalian cells, which conceal crucial underlying processes. We were thus able to target this process in yeast cells and confirm its presence in mammalian cells. However, the findings are not sufficient to identify the primary cause of the Warburg effect. Further research is needed to find out whether this primary cause is also conserved in yeast cells.”

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Too much sugar can increase your risk of cancer and promote tumor growth. This sugar is being consumed through any variety of foods. You could then be forgiven for assuming that a diet with too much sugar is more likely to cause cancer. Yet the Mayo Clinic places that idea firmly in the cancer myth column, which brings up an important question.

Related: Cure Cancer Naturally

As more research confirms that our health is first and foremost a direct product of what we eat, will our current food and medical system be able to acknowledge that before it’s too late?

Sources:

• Eating too much sugar may increase your risk of cancer – QZ
• Scientists reveal the relationship between sugar and cancer – VIB.be
• Cancer – Mayo Clinic