Are Red Meats & Sugary Drinks Paving Way for Colon Cancer Risk?

Avoid Cancer by Eating an Anti-inflammatory Diet

Its exciting to eat a mouthful of the cheesy burger or the wrap and even more gratifying to drink a spoonful of the canned soup during lingering cold. Cancer rates are increasing with more and more people being affected by the deadly disease. When we look into this obesity remains as one of the leading causes of cancer. Environmental changes too have played a prominent role in increasing the impact of the disease. What exactly have we done to ourselves to land up with such serious diseases and health problems?

Inflammatory Foods
Inflammation is the body’s way of protecting itself from wounds or tissue damage. Chronic inflammation paves way for certain cancers and eating foods that increase chronic inflammation can put you at an even greater risk of colorectal cancer.

A research team dedicatedly followed up on the diets of more than 1,21,000 (46,800 were men) people for more than two decades and split them into five different groups depending on how much their food habits contributed to inflammation. On comparing, it was found that people whose diet (such as red meat, sugary drinks, refined grains and processed meat & whose intake of greens, veggies and beverages such as coffee/tea was low) were likelier to cause inflammation were 32% at an increased risk of developing colorectal cancer compared to those whose diet consisted of least consumption of inflammatory food. Gender-wise, men with pro-inflammatory dietary habits were at a 44% increased risk of colorectal cancer whereas the risk was less-pronounced with such women only at a 22% increased risk. The risk of a tumor was equal across all parts except for the rectum in the case of women. Surprisingly, the risks were even higher in case of obese men, thin women and in people who did not consume alcohol. This study follows the same path of other studies that established the fact that inflammatory foods increased the risk of diseases such as cancer and rheumatoid arthritis.

Abstaining from smoking and staying on a healthy weight are known to lower the risk of colorectal cancer. From all this we are able to understand one thing clearly-whatever forms a part of a healthy diet also minimizes the risk of colon cancer. Though we have previously known that dietary factors do influence colon cancer its now clearly understood that inflammation-promoting foods are friends to cancer.

What to Eat & What Not to Eat
Caffeine has an excellent anti-inflammatory effect but its health benefits are dissolved when you fill it with sugar. It is always suggested to minimize consumption of red meats, packaged breads, canned soups, processed meats and other refined flour. Instead, increase your consumption of fresh fruits, beverages containing caffeine in moderate portions and whole grains. Get the complete list of foods that ‘can’ and ‘cannot’ be consumed from the website www.firsteatright.com. Refraining from drinking alcohol when an individual is following a healthy diet seems to have a great anti-inflammatory effect on the body.