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7 eating, drinking habits that increase your cancer risk

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This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Contact a qualified medical professional before engaging in any physical activity, or making any changes to your diet, medication or lifestyle.

Eating ultraprocessed foods is associated with an early risk of death, according to a new study. (Getty)
Eating ultraprocessed foods is associated with an early risk of death, according to a new study. (Getty)

While you can enjoy most foods in moderation, consuming certain ones can increase your risk of developing cancer. A new 2024 study published in The BMJ shed light on how ultra-processed foods (UPFs) can significantly impact your health.

Researchers from Harvard University conducted a 30-year analysis of more than 110,000 health professionals in the United States and discovered a strong correlation between UPF consumption and increased mortality rates.

Those who consumed the most UPFs (averaging seven servings daily) had a four per cent higher risk of death from any cause compared to those who consumed the least (three servings daily). High UPF consumption was also linked to a nine per cent higher risk of neurodegenerative deaths.

Foods that are most strongly associated with higher mortality include processed meat and poultry, like bacon, ham, hot dogs — which have been classified as carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. They contain nitrates and other preservatives that can increase the risk of colorectal, stomach and bowel cancers.

Consuming even 100 per cent fruit juice has been linked to increased risk of health problems. Mockup and .illustration is suitable for presenting new juice packaging or label designs among many othersConsuming even 100 per cent fruit juice has been linked to increased risk of health problems. Mockup and .illustration is suitable for presenting new juice packaging or label designs among many others
Consuming even 100 per cent fruit juice has been linked to increased risk of health problems.

High-risk UPFs also include sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened drinks, including sodas and even 100 per cent fruit juice. These are linked to obesity, a known risk factor for 13 types of cancer.

It’s been known following a healthy lifestyle, including eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and other plant-based foods, can help decrease your cancer risk. That could also mean avoiding or reducing eating some less-nutritious foods.

Here are some of the top offenders you can avoid.


Cooked Bacon Slices on White Background Back Lit Pattern Full Frame Studio Shot.Cooked Bacon Slices on White Background Back Lit Pattern Full Frame Studio Shot.
Cooked Bacon Slices on White Background Back Lit Pattern Full Frame Studio Shot.

Processed meats were classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an arm of the World Health Organization, as a class 1 carcinogen in 2015, which means they’re known to cause cancer. Processed meats are preserved by smoking, curing, salting or adding preservatives. Examples of processed meat include bacon, ham, hot dogs, salami and sausages.

The methods of preserving these meats include nitrates, chemicals that are known to cause bowel and stomach cancer. To reduce your cancer risk, it’s best to avoid processed meats as much as possible or eliminate them entirely.

Red meat is also associated with an increased risk of developing cancer. Although red meat can be a good source of iron, protein and other micronutrients, most people in the Western world eat far too much red meat, with Canada having one of the highest per capita consumption rates in the world. Consuming red and processed meat has been linked to 15 different types of cancer, including:

  • Colorectal
  • Esophagus
  • Kidney
  • Liver
  • Stomach

To decrease your risk, you shouldn’t eat more than one serving of red meat per week. If you do eat red meat, you may be able to mitigate your risk of developing cancer by eating more fruits, vegetables and whole grains. A study of more than 50,000 people in Alberta found that those who consumed red meat along with a high intake of fruits and vegetables had less risk of developing several cancers.

Processed meats like hot dogs and sausages are preserved using nitrates, which are known to cause bowel and stomach cancer. (Photo via Getty Images)Processed meats like hot dogs and sausages are preserved using nitrates, which are known to cause bowel and stomach cancer. (Photo via Getty Images)
Processed meats like hot dogs and sausages are preserved using nitrates, which are known to cause bowel and stomach cancer. (Photo via Getty Images)

Although sugar itself doesn’t cause cancer, drinking sugary drinks — including pop and 100 per cent fruit juice — has been associated with an increased risk of developing cancer. Sugar consumption is linked to obesity, which is a risk factor in 13 types of cancer. Sugary drinks are sweetened with sugar, corn syrup or other sweeteners that have calories. Some examples include:

  • Pop
  • Energy drinks
  • Sports drinks
  • Fruit drinks

These beverages don’t have any nutritional value and don’t fill you up. Most people don’t consume fewer calories in the rest of their diet when they drink sugary drinks, leading to weight gain.

Eating highly processed foods has been associated with an increased risk of overall cancer and breast cancer. Highly processed foods contain added salt, sugar and saturated fat, and include examples such as:

  • Chips and pretzels
  • Sugary drinks
  • Sauces, including dressings and gravies
  • Ice cream
  • Muffins, cakes and cookies
  • French fries, burgers and other fast food
  • Frozen pizza and pasta

Foods that are preserved by drying, canning or freezing can be part of a healthy diet. If you eat highly processed foods, check the ingredients to find those that have little or no added sodium, sugar or saturated fat.

Carbohydrates can be an important part of a healthy diet. However, refined carbohydrates have been stripped of their fibre and nutritional content, and can be easily digested, causing your blood sugar to spike. Fibre plays an important role in preventing some types of cancer. Eating a diet high in refined carbohydrates is associated with a significantly increased risk of developing prostate and breast cancer. Refined carbohydrates include foods such as:

  • Tortillas
  • White bread
  • Bagels
  • Waffles and pancakes
  • Pastries
  • White rice

You can cut down on your consumption of refined carbs by substituting complex carbs instead. Choose brown rice instead of white rice, baked goods made with whole grains and eat oatmeal instead of refined breakfast cereals.

You may have heard that alcohol, particularly red wine, is good for your health. While it’s true that consuming red wine in moderation is associated with fewer heart attacks, all types of alcohol are associated with an increased risk of developing cancer. The more alcohol you drink, the higher your risk is of developing cancer. Drinking alcohol is positively associated with developing six types of cancer, including:

  • Mouth and throat cancer
  • Esophagus cancer
  • Colon and rectal cancer
  • Liver cancer
  • Breast cancer
  • Voice box cancer

Three-quarters of Canadians report drinking alcohol in the past year, making it the most commonly used substance in Canada. The Canadian Cancer Society funded a study that found that limiting alcohol intake could prevent 44,300 cases of cancer by 2042.

While drinking red wine in moderation is associated with having fewer heart attacks, all types of alcohol are related to an increased risk of cancer. (Photo via Getty Images)While drinking red wine in moderation is associated with having fewer heart attacks, all types of alcohol are related to an increased risk of cancer. (Photo via Getty Images)
While drinking red wine in moderation is associated with having fewer heart attacks, all types of alcohol are related to an increased risk of cancer. (Photo via Getty Images)

Everyone loves a barbecue, but grilling your meat may increase your cancer risk, since charring your food carbonizes the proteins and sugars in it. Charring meat, fish and poultry causes heterocyclic amines (HCAs) to form, which are substances that may cause cancer. Here are some ways you can enjoy grilled food and lower your risk of cancer:

  • Marinate meat for 30 minutes before cooking
  • Precook your meat away from the grill to reduce exposure time
  • Cook at lower temperatures using indirect heat
  • Cut off charred areas before you eat
  • Consider grilling fruits and vegetables, which don’t form HCAs even when they’re charred

Let us know what you think by commenting below and tweeting @YahooStyleCA! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

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Health Canada approves updated Moderna COVID-19 vaccine

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TORONTO – Health Canada has authorized Moderna’s updated COVID-19 vaccine that protects against currently circulating variants of the virus.

The mRNA vaccine, called Spikevax, has been reformulated to target the KP.2 subvariant of Omicron.

It will replace the previous version of the vaccine that was released a year ago, which targeted the XBB.1.5 subvariant of Omicron.

Health Canada recently asked provinces and territories to get rid of their older COVID-19 vaccines to ensure the most current vaccine will be used during this fall’s respiratory virus season.

Health Canada is also reviewing two other updated COVID-19 vaccines but has not yet authorized them.

They are Pfizer’s Comirnaty, which is also an mRNA vaccine, as well as Novavax’s protein-based vaccine.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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These people say they got listeria after drinking recalled plant-based milks

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TORONTO – Sanniah Jabeen holds a sonogram of the unborn baby she lost after contracting listeria last December. Beneath, it says “love at first sight.”

Jabeen says she believes she and her baby were poisoned by a listeria outbreak linked to some plant-based milks and wants answers. An investigation continues into the recall declared July 8 of several Silk and Great Value plant-based beverages.

“I don’t even have the words. I’m still processing that,” Jabeen says of her loss. She was 18 weeks pregnant when she went into preterm labour.

The first infection linked to the recall was traced back to August 2023. One year later on Aug. 12, 2024, the Public Health Agency of Canada said three people had died and 20 were infected.

The number of cases is likely much higher, says Lawrence Goodridge, Canada Research Chair in foodborne pathogen dynamics at the University of Guelph: “For every person known, generally speaking, there’s typically 20 to 25 or maybe 30 people that are unknown.”

The case count has remained unchanged over the last month, but the Public Health Agency of Canada says it won’t declare the outbreak over until early October because of listeria’s 70-day incubation period and the reporting delays that accompany it.

Danone Canada’s head of communications said in an email Wednesday that the company is still investigating the “root cause” of the outbreak, which has been linked to a production line at a Pickering, Ont., packaging facility.

Pregnant people, adults over 60, and those with weakened immune systems are most at risk of becoming sick with severe listeriosis. If the infection spreads to an unborn baby, Health Canada says it can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth or life-threatening illness in a newborn.

The Canadian Press spoke to 10 people, from the parents of a toddler to an 89-year-old senior, who say they became sick with listeria after drinking from cartons of plant-based milk stamped with the recalled product code. Here’s a look at some of their experiences.

Sanniah Jabeen, 32, Toronto

Jabeen says she regularly drank Silk oat and almond milk in smoothies while pregnant, and began vomiting seven times a day and shivering at night in December 2023. She had “the worst headache of (her) life” when she went to the emergency room on Dec. 15.

“I just wasn’t functioning like a normal human being,” Jabeen says.

Told she was dehydrated, Jabeen was given fluids and a blood test and sent home. Four days later, she returned to hospital.

“They told me that since you’re 18 weeks, there’s nothing you can do to save your baby,” says Jabeen, who moved to Toronto from Pakistan five years ago.

Jabeen later learned she had listeriosis and an autopsy revealed her baby was infected, too.

“It broke my heart to read that report because I was just imagining my baby drinking poisoned amniotic fluid inside of me. The womb is a place where your baby is supposed to be the safest,” Jabeen said.

Jabeen’s case is likely not included in PHAC’s count. Jabeen says she was called by Health Canada and asked what dairy and fresh produce she ate – foods more commonly associated with listeria – but not asked about plant-based beverages.

She’s pregnant again, and is due in several months. At first, she was scared to eat, not knowing what caused the infection during her last pregnancy.

“Ever since I learned about the almond, oat milk situation, I’ve been feeling a bit better knowing that it wasn’t something that I did. It was something else that caused it. It wasn’t my fault,” Jabeen said.

She’s since joined a proposed class action lawsuit launched by LPC Avocates against the manufacturers and sellers of Silk and Great Value plant-based beverages. The lawsuit has not yet been certified by a judge.

Natalie Grant and her seven year-old daughter, Bowmanville, Ont.

Natalie Grant says she was in a hospital waiting room when she saw a television news report about the recall. She wondered if the dark chocolate almond milk her daughter drank daily was contaminated.

She had brought the girl to hospital because she was vomiting every half hour, constantly on the toilet with diarrhea, and had severe pain in her abdomen.

“I’m definitely thinking that this is a pretty solid chance that she’s got listeria at this point because I knew she had all the symptoms,” Grant says of seeing the news report.

Once her daughter could hold fluids, they went home and Grant cross-checked the recalled product code – 7825 – with the one on her carton. They matched.

“I called the emerg and I said I’m pretty confident she’s been exposed,” Grant said. She was told to return to the hospital if her daughter’s symptoms worsened. An hour and a half later, her fever spiked, the vomiting returned, her face flushed and her energy plummeted.

Grant says they were sent to a hospital in Ajax, Ont. and stayed two weeks while her daughter received antibiotics four times a day until she was discharged July 23.

“Knowing that my little one was just so affected and how it affected us as a family alone, there’s a bitterness left behind,” Grant said. She’s also joined the proposed class action.

Thelma Feldman, 89, Toronto

Thelma Feldman says she regularly taught yoga to friends in her condo building before getting sickened by listeria on July 2. Now, she has a walker and her body aches. She has headaches and digestive problems.

“I’m kind of depressed,” she says.

“It’s caused me a lot of physical and emotional pain.”

Much of the early days of her illness are a blur. She knows she boarded an ambulance with profuse diarrhea on July 2 and spent five days at North York General Hospital. Afterwards, she remembers Health Canada officials entering her apartment and removing Silk almond milk from her fridge, and volunteers from a community organization giving her sponge baths.

“At my age, 89, I’m not a kid anymore and healing takes longer,” Feldman says.

“I don’t even feel like being with people. I just sit at home.”

Jasmine Jiles and three-year-old Max, Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, Que.

Jasmine Jiles says her three-year-old son Max came down with flu-like symptoms and cradled his ears in what she interpreted as a sign of pain, like the one pounding in her own head, around early July.

When Jiles heard about the recall soon after, she called Danone Canada, the plant-based milk manufacturer, to find out if their Silk coconut milk was in the contaminated batch. It was, she says.

“My son is very small, he’s very young, so I asked what we do in terms of overall monitoring and she said someone from the company would get in touch within 24 to 48 hours,” Jiles says from a First Nations reserve near Montreal.

“I never got a call back. I never got an email”

At home, her son’s fever broke after three days, but gas pains stuck with him, she says. It took a couple weeks for him to get back to normal.

“In hindsight, I should have taken him (to the hospital) but we just tried to see if we could nurse him at home because wait times are pretty extreme,” Jiles says, “and I don’t have child care at the moment.”

Joseph Desmond, 50, Sydney, N.S.

Joseph Desmond says he suffered a seizure and fell off his sofa on July 9. He went to the emergency room, where they ran an electroencephalogram (EEG) test, and then returned home. Within hours, he had a second seizure and went back to hospital.

His third seizure happened the next morning while walking to the nurse’s station.

In severe cases of listeriosis, bacteria can spread to the central nervous system and cause seizures, according to Health Canada.

“The last two months have really been a nightmare,” says Desmond, who has joined the proposed lawsuit.

When he returned home from the hospital, his daughter took a carton of Silk dark chocolate almond milk out of the fridge and asked if he had heard about the recall. By that point, Desmond says he was on his second two-litre carton after finishing the first in June.

“It was pretty scary. Terrifying. I honestly thought I was going to die.”

Cheryl McCombe, 63, Haliburton, Ont.

The morning after suffering a second episode of vomiting, feverish sweats and diarrhea in the middle of the night in early July, Cheryl McCombe scrolled through the news on her phone and came across the recall.

A few years earlier, McCombe says she started drinking plant-based milks because it seemed like a healthier choice to splash in her morning coffee. On June 30, she bought two cartons of Silk cashew almond milk.

“It was on the (recall) list. I thought, ‘Oh my God, I got listeria,’” McCombe says. She called her doctor’s office and visited an urgent care clinic hoping to get tested and confirm her suspicion, but she says, “I was basically shut down at the door.”

Public Health Ontario does not recommend listeria testing for infected individuals with mild symptoms unless they are at risk of developing severe illness, such as people who are immunocompromised, elderly, pregnant or newborn.

“No wonder they couldn’t connect the dots,” she adds, referencing that it took close to a year for public health officials to find the source of the outbreak.

“I am a woman in my 60s and sometimes these signs are of, you know, when you’re vomiting and things like that, it can be a sign in women of a bigger issue,” McCombe says. She was seeking confirmation that wasn’t the case.

Disappointed, with her stomach still feeling off, she says she decided to boost her gut health with probiotics. After a couple weeks she started to feel like herself.

But since then, McCombe says, “I’m back on Kawartha Dairy cream in my coffee.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

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B.C. mayors seek ‘immediate action’ from federal government on mental health crisis

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VANCOUVER – Mayors and other leaders from several British Columbia communities say the provincial and federal governments need to take “immediate action” to tackle mental health and public safety issues that have reached crisis levels.

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says it’s become “abundantly clear” that mental health and addiction issues and public safety have caused crises that are “gripping” Vancouver, and he and other politicians, First Nations leaders and law enforcement officials are pleading for federal and provincial help.

In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier David Eby, mayors say there are “three critical fronts” that require action including “mandatory care” for people with severe mental health and addiction issues.

The letter says senior governments also need to bring in “meaningful bail reform” for repeat offenders, and the federal government must improve policing at Metro Vancouver ports to stop illicit drugs from coming in and stolen vehicles from being exported.

Sim says the “current system” has failed British Columbians, and the number of people dealing with severe mental health and addiction issues due to lack of proper care has “reached a critical point.”

Vancouver Police Chief Adam Palmer says repeat violent offenders are too often released on bail due to a “revolving door of justice,” and a new approach is needed to deal with mentally ill people who “pose a serious and immediate danger to themselves and others.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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