Dr.. Osama Abu Al-Rub
People pass on a WhatsApp video to a man who warns of soft drinks and sausages, and says that he used to drink 4-5 cans of soft drinks a day, eating sausage 2-3 times a week, which led to his cancer. What is the relationship between soft drinks, sausages and cancer?
First of all, we express our solidarity, appreciation and respect for this person in the aforementioned video, and also for all cancer sufferers in the world and those recovering from it, and we wish all the patients a speedy recovery.
With regard to cancer and its causes, this disease occurs as a result of a mutation in the DNA (DNA) in the cell, and DNA is the code responsible for regulating cell growth and activity, and the occurrence of this change in it leads to the transformation of the cell into an abnormal cell.
This abnormal cell - that is, the cancerous - grows and multiplies without control, and it moves to other places in the body, meaning that cancer cells can be considered cells that lost their senses and became mad, as they ruin and destroy wherever they occur.
There are several factors that may lead to or increase the risk of mutations in the genetic material, such as exposure to carcinogenic chemicals, sunlight, viruses, bacteria, and aging.
Over the past years, the role of the modern nutritional pattern rich in sugary drinks and processed foods, including soft drinks and sausages, has been highlighted.
Soft drinks increase the risk of cancer
There are several indications that consuming sugary drinks (such as soft drinks and juices) is associated with an increased risk of cancer. For example, a study conducted by researchers in France published in 2019 in the magazine "BMJ" and included more than 100 thousand people, found that consumption of sugary drinks is associated with the risk of developing cancer in general, and breast cancer in particular.
The study also found a relationship between consumption of fruit juices and an increased risk of cancer in general.
The researchers found that drinking 3 to 4 ounces of sugary drinks a day (90-120 milliliters) was associated with an 18% increase in the risk of cancer. It was also associated with a 22% increase in the risk of developing breast cancer; for example, a can of soft drinks usually contains 250 milliliters.
The researchers said that sugary drinks, which are widely consumed in Western countries, may be an adjustable risk factor for cancer prevention.
In contrast, the consumption of artificially sweetened drinks (Diet) was not associated with the risk of developing cancer, which indicates that the problem is related to the sugar content of the drink, with the need of course to conduct further studies.
Another study conducted by the Cancer Council in Victoria, Australia and the University of Melbourne in 2018, and included more than 35 thousand people over 12 years, found that eating one can of soft drinks a day may increase the risk of cancer.
"We were surprised that the increased risk of cancer was not entirely driven by obesity," said Professor Alison Hodge of the Department of Epidemiology and Cancer of the Cancer Council.
"Even those who are not overweight are at an increased risk if they regularly drink soft drinks. But this was not the case for those who drank diet soft drinks, which indicates that sugar is the main factor," he added.
These results provided another reason for people to reduce their consumption of these drinks, said Todd Harper, CEO of the Cancer Council in Victoria.
"Sugary drinks are already known to cause obesity, which greatly increases the risk of 13 types of cancer," he said.
Therefore it is recommended not to consume sugar-sweetened drinks, and to replace them with water or unsweetened drinks, such as tea or coffee, without adding sugar to them. On the other hand, there is evidence that coffee may protect against liver and endometrial cancer.
Sausages are also linked to cancer
Sausages belong to a large family of foods called processed meats, such as bacon, mortadella and smoked meat. Processed meats have been treated to either extend their shelf-life or change their taste, and treatment methods include adding salt, preservatives, or smoking.
Chemicals involved in meat processing can increase the risk of cancer, and cooking at high temperatures - such as barbecue - can also lead to carcinogenic chemicals.
In 2015, WHO experts announced that processed meats could cause human bowel cancer, and red meat was a likely cause of the disease.
A report by the Paris-based International Agency for Research on Cancer and the World Health Organization (WHO) put processed meat like sausages in the first category of its disease-causing list, which also includes tobacco, asbestos "rockwool" and diesel smoke, and said that there was sufficient evidence to link them all to cancer.
In an analysis of more than 800 independent scientific studies, a group of cancer research specialists said that eating fifty grams of processed meat every day increases the risk of colon cancer by 18%.
Red meat - which includes beef, veal, pork, and all meat from the animal's muscle tissue - was classified as a possible human carcinogen, and a link was also observed between red meat consumption and pancreatic and prostate cancer.
For its part, the American Cancer Society recommends a diet that limits processed meats and red meats, and is rich in vegetables, fruits, and whole grains.
Another study published in 2018 found that consuming two sausages a week could increase your risk of breast cancer.
The study was conducted by researchers led by Professor Jill Bell, from the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom, and published in the European Journal of Cancer, and included more than 260 thousand women.
The researchers found that the risk of developing breast cancer increased by more than one fifth in those who ate more than nine grams of processed meat per day, equivalent to approximately two pieces of sausage per day.