Food That May Increase Lung Cancer Risks

GaleHawkins wrote: »

MakePeasNotWar wrote: »

I wonder if it could be the higher antioxidant content of low glycemic carbs like vegetables and berries that accounts for the difference? Several phytochemicals are showing possible protective effects against cancer, and a diet high in processed carbs would have fewer sources of phytochemicals.

I do believe that lifestyle and nutrition affect cancer risk (after reading the American Institute for Cancer Research report and recommendations), but I think that often news articles exaggerate the risk by not giving the baseline risk for the general population. The incidence of lung cancer in non smokers aged 50-59 between 1982 and 2000, for example, was under 10 per 100,000

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3170525/#!po=7.82209

I don't think that the prospect of raising one's risk from 1 in 10,000 (0.01%) to 1.5 in 10,000 (0.015%) sounds nearly as alarming as the headline of the article. Carbs are definitely not the new cigarettes, and it's alarmist headlines like this that make people start to doubt the science, or throw their hands up and say "well, everything gives you cancer, so why bother trying?"

@MakePeasNotWar I think you are on to something perhaps. The statement from the MD Anderson site, "Interestingly, GL had no significant associations with lung cancer risk. “This suggests that it is the average quality, instead of quantity, of carbohydrates consumed that may modulate lung cancer risk,” said Wu." drives home the "quality" of the carbs may more of a factor in causing cancer than the "quantity" of carbs.

ALL ABOUT THE GLYCEMIC INDEX
The glycemic index, or GI, measures how a carbohydrate-containing food raises blood glucose.
Foods are ranked based on how they compare to a reference food — either glucose or white bread.
A food with a high GI raises blood glucose more than a food with a medium or low GI.

The below is from the first link in this thread. Vegs made the low GI list for sure.

Foods with low GI include
:
100% stone-ground whole wheat or pumpernickel bread
Oatmeal (rolled or steel-cut), oat bran, muesli
Wholemeal pasta, converted rice, barley, bulgar wheat
Sweet potato, corn, yam, lima/butter beans, peas, legumes and lentils

Foods with high GI include:

White bread or bagel
Corn flakes, puffed rice, bran flakes, instant oatmeal
Shortgrain white rice, rice pasta, macaroni and cheese from mix
Russet potato, pumpkin
Pretzels, rice cakes, popcorn, saltine crackers
melons and pineapple
Source: American Diabetes Association

senecarr wrote: »

auddii wrote: »

The study seems rather iffy since it relies on subject recall for food and then calculating GI and GL from that:

We used a modified version of the NCI Health Habits and History Questionnaire (29). The questionnaire includes a semiquantitative food frequency list made up of food and beverage items and an open-ended section regarding dietary behaviors such as dining in restaurants and food preparation methods. Portion size was also queried. Total energy intake, total carbohydrate intake, total fiber intake, and grams per day of consumption for each food item were estimated using the USDA Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies (30). Total meat intake was calculated by adding total grams per day of each meat item in the food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). All nutrient and food variables of interest were energy adjusted for total caloric intake using the residual method (31).

In addition, glycemic load was not associated with cancer in any model; it makes no sense that GI would affect cancer but GL would not. Unless it's just a correlation and not a cause. Oh wait...

My other favorite conclusion:

This is only the second study to suggest an independent association between GI and lung cancer risk and the first study to suggest that GI may influence lung cancer risk more profoundly in specific subgroups, including never smokers, individuals with low levels of education (<12 years), and those diagnosed with certain histologic subtypes of lung cancer, specifically SCC.

Your glycemic index knows how much schooling you've had. It's one of the reasons why a lot of correlation studies don't make sense when you step back and look at them. And I'm very disappointed that the discussion never even addressed by GI was correlated and GL was not. It goes into a lot of detail on how spikes in insulin can lead to all sorts of issues, but GL has been shown to be more relevant to spikes in insulin than GI.

Much disappoint.

I protect myself by quickly forgetting all food I've eaten moments after I've eaten it. I assume any cancer cells in my body will also learn this habit, and thus fail to proliferate.