'Junk food' may increase cancer risk in 'healthy weight' women

Conclusion Energy dense diets appear to be associated with a 10% increased risk of obesity-related cancer in those eating the top 205 high density food types. A sub analysis of postmenopausal women of normal, overweight or obese weight at the start of the study showed a link specifically in those of a normal weight and a weaker link in those who were overweight or obese. The authors suggest these findings mean weight management alone might not protect against obesity-related cancer if women have a high energy dense diet. Although this was a longitudinal study involving a large sample of women, it has some limitations: Food intake was self-reported and so might not accurately represent what women were truly eating as there is a tendency to under-report in such questionnaires. There are a range of other factors that might have contributed to the increased risk of cancer that were not accounted for in analysis, such as whether the participants were employed, the type of employment, home life and social factors, levels of activity, as well as consumption of energy dense drinks (which were not considered in the food questionnaire). Women consuming lower amounts of energy dense food tended to have a lower BMI, engage in more physical activity and consume less alcohol and tobacco, indicating that healthy behaviours cluster together and are hard to unpick. Research was limited to postmenopausal women aged 50 to 79 in the US so might be less relevant to women of other ages...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Cancer Source Type: news