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Foods that Cause Cancer

There is a list of foods that cause cancer as there is one on foods that can prevent it. Always remember that what you eat is what you become. It can either make you healthy or sick. Often, what you love most to eat are major factors for chronic inflammation. Unfortunately, chronic inflammation leads to diseases like cancers and diabetes. Unhealthy foods are also associated with obesity.

Examine the meals you prepare everyday. If red meat (especially when it's cured) takes a major space on your plate, your digestive system will most likely be the first to suffer followed by the other systems.

The systems inside your body are connected to each other and can't function very well if one system is burdened. The immune system becomes weak when your digestive system is weak.

Colon polyps may start to grow. This makes knowing how to colon cleanse naturally very important.

Do you know . . .

Prevention against leading cancers is one of the health benefits of flax seeds. Just add ground flaxseeds to your dishes!

What should you avoid feeding yourself and your family?

1. Potato chips and french fries

When I told my husband about this, he was dismayed. Potatoes are his favorite. He loves them fried, mashed and boiled in stews or casseroles.

How do potatoes become foods that cause cancer? When they are fried or baked because they produce higher levels of acrylamide when cooked in high temperature.

Acrylamide is one of the many cancer causing agents. It is formed not only by potatoes but also by certain foods when fried, baked or roasted.

Common types of cancer such as endometrial and ovarian cancers are associated with exposure to high levels of acrylamide. This chemical is used in the production of paper, plastics and dyes and is found to cause damage to your brain.

I told my husband that he can still have his potatoes but only once a week and in a small amount. Eating too much potato chips and french fries is what should be avoided if prevention of the disease is your goal.

2. Pickled vegetables

I love pickled vegetables! So it was my turn to be dismayed when I saw that it's in the list of foods to be avoided.

Eating a lot of pickled vegetables makes you more vulnerable to tumors in your esophagus, which is one of the rare types of cancer. Cases of esophageal adenocarcinoma are unusually common in Japan and China where pickled vegetables are a major part of their diet.

I still eat pickled vegetables but only in very small portion and not as often.

3. Cured or dried meat

Cured meat like bacon, sausages and jerky are foods that cause cancer.

What puts cured meat in the list of acidic foods that are harmful to your health?

First, let's find out how meat is cured. Curing is done to preserve and enhance the meat's flavor with the use of either of the following: salt, sugar and nitrates (sodium or potassium).

Too much salt and sugar in your diet can make you gain weight and cause blood sugar and blood pressure to rise. Nitrates are controversial because when cured meat with nitrates is cooked, it releases a potent carcinogenic substance called nitrosamine. Nitrosamine is carcinogenic.

Bacon used to be a staple on my family's table during breakfast but not anymore. I still serve bacon once or twice a month and only as a side dish.

4. Smoked foods

Smoked foods may cause tumors in the stomach because of the carcinogenic substances called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) that form on the surface of food during the smoking process.

5. Grilled or charcoaled meat

Do you love barbecued meat? Who doesn't, right? But grilled meat is found to be one of the unhealthy foods because they produce chemicals called heterocyclic amines or HCAs.

These chemicals are formed when the fats and protein in the meat come into contact with high heat.

If you love your steaks medium-well or well-done, your risk for tumors is three times more than someone who has his steak medium-rare or rare. High intake of well-done, fried or barbecued meats is proven to be what causes colon cancer.

6. White bread, pasta and rice

unhealthy foods

Anything that is white is unhealthy because white is equal to processed. White bread and pasta come from bleached flour but even unbleached white flour is processed, too.

White rice is also on the list of acidic foods because it has a very high sugar content compared to brown rice.

In addition, many baked products that are made of processed flour can contain high levels of saturated fats. A diet rich in saturated fats always leads to obesity. If you're obese, try to lose weight because there is a definite correlation between cancer and obesity.

Saturated fats are closely linked to what causes breast cancer.

What's your choice now? You can either choose any of the healthy eating plans for prevention of tumors or you can continue eating foods that cause cancer.