Diet - How It Impacts Your Health

Natural Dangers In Your Food

In recent years, scientists and the general public has become more aware of  how our diet can affect your health , especially regarding the production of cancers. Research has shown that your diet contains an enormous variety of natural mutagens and carcinogens.  They are dangerous substances that can build up in your body over years of ingesting them.   It is also apparent that we are ingesting vastly greater amounts of these substances than was ever previously suspected.  In 1989 the United States had a big publicity generated scare concerning the plant growth regulator Alar, which is used to slow down the ripening of apples so that they do not drop prematurely. Alar was said to be carcinogenic, but when put in perspective with chemicals in our daily diets , it does not appear to be as big a danger.  For example, the naturally occurring hydrazines in a helping of mushrooms are 60 times more carcinogenic than the Alar consumed in a glass of apple juice or 20 times more than a daily peanut butter sandwich, which can contains aflatoxin B. Our diets contain literally millions of natural chemicals; in fact it is not practical to test them all for carcinogenicity.

Animal tests  have been used to evaluate cooked foods for their potential for inducing cancers; and it has been found that browned or burnt sugars or breads contain a variety of mutagens. In addition, caffeine and its close relative theobromine found in coffee, tea, cocoa, and some soft drinks may increase the risk of tumors by inhibiting DNA repair enzymes. Plants produce many carcinogenic or teratogenic chemicals as defense mechanism to ward off insects and animals that want to consume them. Examples of plants plant carcinogens include psoralen and its derivatives, which are widespread in plants and have been used as sunscreen in France; solanine and chaconine are teratogens and are found in the skin of potatoes that have been exposed to light. Other foods that contains natural carcinogens includes banana, basil, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, horseradish, mustard turnips, and black pepper. In addition, red wines are believed to be responsible for the high occurrance of stomach cancers among the  people of France, although red wine also seems to decrease the incidence of coronary heart disease. It seems that many of the foods that we consume contain naturally occurring compound that are harmful to some degree of other.

Fat Kills In Several Ways

 There is another major concern regarding the North American diet and that is the large amount of fat the is consumed.  This problem is amplified by the excessive consumption of processed foods.
 Studies have found that the average American diet can get 40 percent of their calories in the form of various fats. 
 Cancer ocurrances and death rates vary from country to country depending on variations in nutritional content in the national diet.
  Very different types of cancers appear in the United States than are found  in Japan. In United States, colon, breast, and prostate cancer are most prevalent, whereas stomach cancers are in excess in Japan.  When the amount of dietary fat intake is plotted against the number of deaths by breast cancer, the results are striking; the greater the amount of fat in the diet, the  higher the rate of breast cancer. How might fat intake cause cancer? It may be caused by rancid fat because it represents a sizable percentage of the fat are very prone to oxidation, which produces a variety of carcinogenic compounds. Another likely explanation is that may carcinogens are soluble in fats and accumulate in the fat of the animals we eat.  Higher temperatures used in cooking that cause fat to burn can increase the amount of dangerous compounds the are created.