Cancer out of the bag - the houseofgoldhealthproducts blog

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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Bag soups, frozen pizzas, bratwurst - convenience food is practical, popular and can definitely taste good. I know that, because after long days in the editorial office, I also reach out to the corresponding shelves in the supermarket. Now, however, there is a tremendous suspicion in the room: The finished feed is actually supposed to cause cancer? What has it already done to me?

The word "natural" is prominently emblazoned on my sachet soup - and of course in trustworthy green. Only when I take a second look do I discover the asterisk. "Naturally". So I find out in the small print that my instant soup does not contain any flavor-enhancing additives. With the exception of yeast extract. It also contains glutamate. But by nature.

The mushrooms are just a decoration

I read on: The main components of my “natural soup” are modified potato starch, palm oil, glucose syrup, and milk extract. In addition: stabilizers (E340, E452) and the emulsifier E 471. Mushrooms, on the other hand, make up just 0.9 percent of the mixture that claims to be a mushroom cream soup. Probably not half as many mushroom heads as shown on the attractively designed package.

Of course, I had long suspected that my lightning soup would have as much to do with a freshly chopped and cooked soup as pink foam sugar with strawberries from the field. As a contribution to a sufficient supply of nutrients and vital substances, I had not planned the product anyway. But does what I spoon out of my cup almost every day even make you sick?

A study from France, a country that is considered the epitome of fine dining culture, has devoted itself to this question. "Soupe de sac" and other ready-made meals are also available there in large quantities and in every supermarket, as I know from countless trips to France.

The extrapolation frightens me

Bernard Srour and Mathilde Touvier from the Sorbonne in Paris investigated the extent to which highly processed foods pose a health risk, especially with regard to cancer *.

In fact, they found that for every 10 percent that the amount of highly processed foods in the diet increases, the risk of cancer increases by 12 percent. The breast cancer risk in particular is 11 percent higher for lovers of convenience food. For prostate cancer and colon cancer, however, the researchers found no connection.

I do the math: If I were to eat 50 percent of highly processed foods, my risk of breast cancer would increase by around 55 percent as a result. The epidemiologists had already calculated out the influence of other cancer-promoting factors such as obesity, old age, smoking, physical inactivity or alcohol consumption.

Search for the cancer factor

But how exactly do ultra-processed foods encourage cancer cells to grow in my body? Sure, they contain more sugar and saturated fat, which can make you fat and thus ultimately contribute to the development of cancer. But for those participants who had not grown fat from fast food, the cancer risk also increased.

Ergo: Even as a normal weight person, I'm not on the safe side. Or the other way around: being overweight alone cannot explain the increased risk of cancer. Just as little is the higher salt content, a lower proportion of fiber or vitamins sufficient to justify this.

Heated, roasted, smoked, packaged

So there must be other reasons. The researchers suspect that a cancer-promoting effect is due, among other things, to bioactive substances that arise during processing, especially when food is heated: so-called heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. But above all acrylamide, which develops when carbohydrates are heated vigorously. For example, if you throw potato strips into boiling oil. The reports about it regularly spoil my appetite for chips, cookies and crispy rolls.

Plastic vapor from the packaging

On the other hand, the problem may also be found in the packaging itself: Some plastic secretes bisphenol A, among other things, which steams bit by bit into the finished feed as long as it is still on the supermarket shelf.

Bisphenol A, as we now know, influences the hormonal balance and is also suspected of promoting cancer. It is contained in plastic bottles or the inner coating of cans and beverage cartons.

Allowed - and still dangerous

Last but not least, many finished products contain additives that are permitted, but the harmlessness of which is controversial: nitrosamines in processed meat, for example. Or titanium dioxide, which, among other things, makes chewing gum whiter. At least in animal studies or cell cultures, these substances have already shown their ugly grimaces as potential cancer triggers.

Nothing has been proven yet, but ...

Of course, it is clear to me: This study does not provide any conclusive evidence that - and, above all, how - ultra-processed foods actually increase the risk of cancer. However, due to the careful study design, there are some indications that there could be something to the suspected cause-effect relationship.

However, the final proof is still pending: It cannot be completely ruled out that other influencing factors, which no one has thought of yet, are responsible for the correlation observed by the French.

Tasty, germ-free and carcinogenic

In the past few decades, the consumption of highly processed foods has increased dramatically, the authors write. Studies from Europe, Canada and Brazil, among others, have shown that ultra-processed foods already cover 25 to 80 percent of daily energy requirements there.

And how is it with me? In the evening I do the reality check in the supermarket. Except for my penchant for instant soups, I believe I am eating healthily. A look in the shopping cart teaches me better: There is only one salad from the group of natural foods! In addition, olive oil (lightly processed), mozzarella (moderate degree of processing), the rest falls into the group of highly processed foods: smoked ham, frozen pan-fried vegetables, peanuts with a crispy coating - and of course my beloved “soup de sac”.

The study authors would now say: “After having been subjected to multiple physical, biological or chemical processes, the products are microbiologically safe, practical, tasty and affordable. Just healthy, unfortunately they are not. "

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* More about the study:

The authors of the study, entitled “Consumption of ultra-processed foods and cancer risk: results from NutriNet-Santé prospective cohort”, evaluated the information from 104,980 participants who were regularly asked about their diet over a period from 2009 to 2017. In addition to general statements, they should record in detail on three days every six months what they had eaten in the 24 hours before. A total of 3300 different foods were recorded and evaluated in this way.

The Parisian scientists used the international NOVA classification as a guide, which classifies foods into four groups depending on their degree of processing.

Group 4 represents the highly processed foods: soft drinks, burgers, sausages, ready-made pizzas, frozen meals, frozen fries and puddings, pastries, snacks and sugary breakfast cereals.

“These products are not fresh foods: They hardly contain any natural group 1 foods,” the authors write. Numerous substances such as flavor enhancers, colorings or emulsifiers are also added to them.

At the other end of the scale are the unprocessed or little processed foods in Group 1 such as unprocessed fruit and vegetables, raw meat, rice, nuts, milk and eggs.

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