Well, here it is: The single most shocking food study ever conducted. According to a French study, ultra-processed foods—which tend to be high in fat, saturated fat, sugar, processed carbohydrates, and salt—are linked to cancer. It’s no surprise that the poor nutritional quality of ultra-processed foods lends itself to their negative effects on health.

Ultra-processed foods usually have high levels of inflammatory ingredients such as high levels of sodium, along with certain fats and sugars. Chronic inflammation causes an increase in risk for cancer. Food additives, some containing carcinogenic properties and cancer-causing compounds such as acrylamide could be possible triggers.

In the study, the medical records and eating habits of 105,000 adults, who took part in the French NutriNet-Santé cohort study, were monitored by a team of researchers, registering their usual consumption of over 3,300 different food items.

They found that a 10% increase in the amount of ultra-processed foods in the diet was linked to a 12% increase in cancers of some kind. They also looked to see whether there were increases in specific types of cancer and found a rise of 11% in breast cancer.

France is one of the few countries that warns its people specifically about ultra-processed foods.

Of course, you read this article so you can no longer claim ignorance. You have the information… so what are you going to do with it?

If you want to read more, you can check out this article in TIME

Sources:

http://www.bmj.com/content/360/bmj.k322

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/chronic-inflammation

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/general-info/known-and-probable-human-carcinogens.html

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/diet/acrylamide-fact-sheet

http://time.com/5157885/processed-foods-cancer/