Different investigations have shown that eating a healthy and balanced diet is key when it comes to preventing certain types of cancer. Now, a new study recently published in the prestigious journal ‘Nature’ has linked a substance to cancer cases. According to the conclusions that scientists have reached, consuming some foods and nutrients increases the risk of contracting no more and no less than eleven different types of cancer .
Today cancer is one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality in the world . Breast cancer is the most common globally. In 2020, more than 19 million cases of cancer were diagnosed in the world, and 10 million people died. The data indicate that 20% of the population suffers from a malignant tumor throughout their life.
The effect of this substance in cancer cases
Researchers point out that nutrition represents between 20% and 25% of cancer cases in the world . Eating a very high calorie diet and sedentary lifestyle accounts for 10-15% of the cancer burden. Meanwhile, 5% is attributed to alcohol and another 5% to various dietary factors.
To reach this conclusion, the study authors analyzed robust data, keeping in mind that nutrition studies are observational. That is, the participants conduct surveys in a timely manner, so that many of the data are not exact .
They reviewed more than 850 meta-analyzes of studies , of which 10 stood out for having highly significant results from a statistical point of view.
Alcohol and coffee
Most striking of all, experts have concluded that alcohol increases the risk of breast, esophageal, head and neck, liver and colorectal cancer .
Meanwhile, the consumption of dairy products and derivatives, as well as whole grain products , have been shown to have a protective effect against cancer against colorectal cancer.
For its part, coffee, one of the most popular and consumed beverages in the world, has a “protective effect” against skin and liver cancer .
This is the largest revision to date . The authors acknowledge that the study is not perfect and there could be some errors, although they claim to have minimized them as much as possible.
