You may find this a bit unbelievable but as recently as the 1960\u2019s there was still a debate about whether smoking caused lung cancer. Many doctors puffed happily away, even in hospital corridors and advised the same of their patients. The smokiest room in any hospital was the Doctors\u2019 Lounge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reason for this protracted idiocy was revealed years later in, \u201cThe Serpent on the Staff: The Unhealthy Politics of the American Medical Association\u201d by Sun Times reporters Howard Wolinsky and Tim Brown. It seems the Medical Editor of the Journal of the AMA was receiving an \u2018educational stipend\u2019 from the tobacco industry in excess of $100K a year to quash any research papers linking cigarettes to illness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You now might ask, \u201cWhat do cigarettes have to do with my colon?\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well\u2014as the 21st century moves along, it\u2019s beginning to look as if ultra-processed food (UPF) may well become the cigarettes of our lives as a source of serious chronic illness. For the average child, up to 70% of his\/her diet is UPF, an adult slightly less at 66%. Ultra-processed foods, I\u2019m sure you know, are high in refined flour, sugar and fat and contain substances with little or no nutritional value, such as colorings, emulsifiers, artificial flavors, and sweeteners. Examples cover a wide range of products, from chips and hot dogs to prepackaged meals. Think of a Dunkin\u2019 Donut accompanying a Chicago Dog and fries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our UPFs are such chemical swills that many countries ban them outright. The main villains are the food dyes, Yellow No. 5 and 6, Red No. 3 and 40 and preservative BHA and BHT. So, the French children will never experience the joys of Fruit Loops, Skittles, Little Debbie Swiss Rolls, Twinkies, Pop Tarts or Lucky Charms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And now new data is here about the increase of colon cancer among younger people, 20\u2019s, 30\u2019s, 40\u2019s, groups normally not included in routine health screenings for colon cancer. Further analysis of these patients showed no genetic predispositions, nothing environmental, no chronic conditions like Crohn\u2019s Disease or ulcerative colitis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What all these patients had in common was their diets had been heavily weighted with UPFs since early childhood and remained that way throughout their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Diets high in ultra-processed foods produce a state of chronic low-level inflammation along your entire intestinal lining (a\/k\/a \u201cleaky gut\u201d) and alterations in your gut microbiome, each of which is a mechanism implicated in cancer development. What we eat affects how your cells grow, how your immune systems function and how your gut bacteria \u2013 which help regulate inflammation and immunity \u2013 behave. Emulsifiers, preservatives, and artificial sweeteners commonly found in ultra-processed foods have been shown in animal studies to promote intestinal inflammation and tumor growth. Meanwhile, the lack of fiber and protective phytochemicals (health-promoting compounds found in plants) in these foods alter your gut microbiome needed for your body to function optimally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And not surprisingly, in the face of these revelations, the food industry is fighting back! Just like the tobacco industry did in the 1950\u2019s, the food people are \u201cquestioning the science\u201d, \u201cchecking the data\u201d, and righteously proclaiming that their products are tasty and delicious \u201cfun\u201d. And they\u2019ve got teams of attorneys preparing for the inevitable lawsuits (\u201cYour M&Ms gave me colon cancer\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In sum, colon cancer in a young person is an unfortunate diagnosis because by the time it is diagnosed it has frequently metastasized (spread). Prevention is the byword.<\/p>\n\n\n\n