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Ultra-Processed Foods Linked to 30% Higher Prostate Cancer Risk
Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) now supply nearly 60% of the calories consumed by U.S. adults and about 70% of those consumed by children. These industrial products include soft drinks, packaged cereals and snacks, and processed meats, and typically combine refined fats, oils, sugars, starches, salts, and other additives designed to alter flavor, texture, or shelf life, often at the expense of nutritional quality.
As UPFs have become a dominant part of the American diet, researchers have increasingly examined their possible health effects. Several biological mechanisms could potentially connect heavy consumption with cancer, including metabolic dysfunction, inflammation, oxidative stress, and changes in the gut microbiome. Much less is known, however, about whether eating large amounts of these foods is associated specifically with prostate cancer.
Research from Florida Atlantic University’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine now adds evidence of such a relationship. Men who consumed larger proportions of their daily calories from UPFs had higher observed risks of prostate cancer, the most commonly diagnosed cancer among U.S. men and the second leading cause of male cancer death after lung cancer.
Popular Sugar Substitute Linked To Higher Heart Risk
U.S. News & World Report reported:
Xylitol is a popular artificial sweetener found in everything from sugar-free foods and drinks to gum and oral care products. But new research is raising questions about its long-term heart safety. “In previous studies, we showed that xylitol can enhance the ability of platelets to form clots,” said co-author Dr. Marco Witkowski of Charité University Hospital in Berlin.
“We also found that high blood levels of xylitol were linked to cardiovascular events in high-risk individuals over a three-year period,” he added in a news release. “Here we studied if xylitol increases cardiovascular events in a larger sample of the general population over much longer follow-up.”
A team of investigators analyzed data from more than 17,700 people in two large, long-term studies. In both, people with the highest blood levels of xylitol had a greater risk of heart attack, stroke or death than those with the lowest levels.
US Breakfast Giant Removes Artificial Dyes From Cereals in MAHA-Friendly Move
General Mills announced Wednesday that all of its cereals in the U.S. are now made without artificial colors. The American food company said in a news release that with all of its U.S. cereals — including popular options like Lucky Charms and Trix — now being free of certified colors, 90% of its total retail portfolio in the nation has completed the transition.
“As the leader in cereal, General Mills is focused on giving people what they are looking for from the brands they know and love,” Bethany Quam, president of Big G Cereal at General Mills, said in a statement. “This achievement reflects how we are evolving with consumer needs while continuing to offer food that tastes great, delivers quality and provides value.”
General Mills also said it will launch more than twice as many new products “that align with evolving consumer nutrition preferences as it did just two years ago” during, such as products with more protein and fiber options, according to the press release. The company is currently on track to remove certified colors from its full U.S. retail portfolio by the end of 2027, per the announcement.
Major Fast Food Chains May Still Be Sourcing Beef Raised With Antibiotics, Report Asserts
McDonald’s, Subway and Taco Bell are failing to keep up with pledges to reduce the use of antibiotics in their beef supply, according to a group of food safety advocates.
Despite promises to reduce or even eliminate the practice entirely, all three companies failed to meet their commitments on reducing antibiotic use over the past decade, according to a report released last week by the Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT), the Keep Antibiotics Working Coalition and US PIRG Education Fund.
Food health advocates say the alleged failed commitments pose a serious threat to public health, putting Americans at risk of antibiotic-resistant infections. “What we’re doing is abusing one of the foundations of modern medicine and making antibiotics ineffective,” said Andre Delattre, co-author of the report and chief operating officer of the Public Interest Network, the umbrella organization that PIRG operated under.
The report points to pledges that were made between 2016 to 2019, when McDonald’s, Subway and Taco Bell made major commitments to reduce their use of antibiotics in beef.
The Sugar You Ate as a Baby May Be Affecting Your Health Now, Study Finds
A new study has revealed that the amount of sugar consumed during the first two years of life can have lifelong effects. The study, published in PNAS in early August, focused on a group of 64,761 people born in Britain between 1951 and 1956. At the time, sugar and other common foods were rationed to prevent food shortages following World War II.
Using data from the UK Biobank study, researchers compared health outcomes among adults who spent their first 1,000 days under sugar restrictions with those of people born after the restrictions were lifted.
The first 1,000 days refers to the period from conception until a child’s second birthday. While relatively brief, it is a critical stage in a child’s development. Food preferences and tastes also begin to form during this period, meaning a person’s early food environment can have lasting effects on health later in life.
Dads’ Junk Food Diet Could Have ‘Long-Reaching Effects’ on Offspring — Study
The effects of obesity caused by western junk food diets can be passed to children through their dad’s sperm, according to new research. The data from the University of Auckland’s Liggins Institute suggests what the father is eating could — in some cases — be more influential than the mother’s diet, which has long been a focus.
The study looked at the impact of high-sugar, high-fat junk food diets on breeding rats and their babies as they aged. Dr Ben Albert — a paediatrician and senior research fellow at the Liggins institute — told Checkpoint the study gave a junk food diet to various mum and dad rats, and then looked at the results.
“In our study we have very carefully controlled the diets of mum and dad rats and shown that when dads had this junk food diet, it had really long-reaching effects on the offspring, right through to adulthood. “We’ve found that if the dad had the junk food, even though the offspring were all treated exactly the same and ate normal diets their whole lives, they had greater body weight, greater body fat, higher blood pressure.”
