Diet and Cancer Risk
- If you have ever bought White Castle sliders at the store, you may have noticed the cancer warning label on the back and raised an eyebrow.
- One woman in California definitely noticed the concerning label, which prompted her to return the White Castle burgers at her local grocery store. The return was documented on TikTok.
- Overcooked red meat, processed foods like bacon (and even the White Castle sliders), as well as fatty meats have all been associated with an increased cancer risk. However, removing these suspected triggers does not always stop cancer from developing.
What does the label say? "Consuming this product can expose you to furfuryl alcohol, which is known to California to cause cancer." Cancer? What? How are they allowed to sell this?
Read MoreUser @prettyoutkhold is a grocery store cashier, and she posted about the woman who returned the White Castle burgers because they "cause cancer." The video, posted on Nov. 26, has garnered millions of views since, and has sparked a debate on the platform about what foods actually cause cancer and when to be concerned.@prettyoutkholdI've tried their burgers one time and it made me sick, never again. 🚮 #Fyp #fypã‚· #fypage #whitecastle #food #groceryshopping #viral♬ Scary – Background Sounds
One user wrote that the label is on "everything" in California, while another user commented that "everything causes cancer." (The user is correct in that there are many studies that come out every day claiming that something we eat or drink could lead to a cancer diagnosis.)
"That label is on everything in CA. It doesn't cause cancer, it does cause diarrhea," user @hbake7 wrote in the comments.
"Bro California claims everything causes cancer," user @ificared69 commented.
User @prettyoutkhold even weighed in on the debate, saying that she tried the White Castle burgers one time and "it made me sick." "Never again," she added.
The Role of Diet and Exercise in Cancer Risk
However, other users are using the video's comment section to discuss the subject mentioned just a few paragraphs above: there are studies published every day that report something we eat or drink could cause cancer.
"Pretty much all the food we eat causes cancer!" user @michelle_833 commented on the video.
"Yeah all processed food does," user @999nueve666 wrote in the comments.
Related: Understanding the Environment's Role in Cancer Risk Diet, Exposure & Genetics
White Castle's Cancer-Causing Warning Label
According to Proposition 65 of the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, it is required that businesses "provide warnings to Californians about significant exposures to chemicals that cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. These chemicals can be in the products that Californians purchase, in their homes or workplaces, or that are released into the environment."
There are more than 1,000 chemicals on California's Proposition 65 list. And according to the American Cancer Society, "not all of the cancer-related substances on the OEHHA list are considered to be known human carcinogens (known to cause cancer in people) by the organizations above. This means that not every chemical on the list has been proven to the worldwide scientific community to actually cause cancer in people."
Related: What to Know About Diet and Exercise if You Have Cancer
The chemical the White Castle label asserts could cause cancer is furfuryl alcohol. While the chemical is listed on California's Proposition 65 list, this chemical is a "food contaminant which occurs in significant amounts in thermally processed foods such as coffee, fruit juices, baked foods," as well as in some cask-stored alcoholic beverages, according to the National Institutes of Health.
As you can see, this chemical is in *a lot* of products people consume every day.
Diet and Cancer Risk
SurvivorNet experts agree that diet and cancer risks are closely related.
How Can Diet Affect My Cancer Risk?
Overcooked red meat, processed foods like bacon (and even the White Castle sliders), as well as fatty meats have all been associated with an increased cancer risk. We know this stuff is true from hard science and multiple studies.
However, removing these suspected triggers does not always stop cancer from developing and indulging in them does not necessarily mean a person will get cancer. There is a bit more to understanding cancer risk than that.
We are exposed to carcinogens, or substances that can cause cancer, throughout our daily lives. But many people will not go on to develop the disease, says Dr. Robert Wright, chair of the Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health at Mount Sinai.
"We create carcinogens all the time in our foods when we cook them, and very few of us get cancer because our bodies can handle them," Dr. Wright explained. "But some people have susceptibilities to these environmental carcinogens, which might be genetic or might be caused by combinations of carcinogens."
It is important to understand that no one trigger is going to definitively cause cancer, Dr. Wright said, but it could be a combination of triggers in the environment.
"Cancer isn't caused by one event, typically, it's usually a series or combination of events," he added. "So, it may be that you ate a lot of charred food, it may be that you're also a smoker, it may be that you've inherited a genetic susceptibility to be a little bit more sensitive to those chemicals."
So, are there any foods that can actually decrease the chance of getting cancer? No matter what anyone tells you, as far as we know, there is no single food that doctors can point to, with absolute certainty, and say it decreases cancer risk. That does not mean that healthy eating habits are not important. A balanced diet is a priority both during and after cancer treatment.
When it comes to dietary advice that applies to everyone, Dr. Wright is pretty straightforward eat more vegetables and stay active.
"What we haven't figured out for cancer is, what is the combination of risk factors that end up leading to a particular person getting cancer," Dr. Wright said during a previous interview with SurvivorNet. "The goal (in the future) is to identify those people who are more susceptible to cancer and to give them counseling and foods that they can eat and other habits like exercise that can reduce their risk. Right now, we're not really good at predicting that."
While some cancers do develop from inherited genes, most do not, so researchers are working on ways to understand how lifestyle factors like diet, exercise, and chemical exposures put people at risk. With that in mind, Dr. Wright stressed that eating well and staying active are still important for all of us.
"In the end, prevention is actually kind of simple," he said. "It's what we always know. It's exercise and eat well. That means eating more vegetables and less meats, particularly red meats."
Some dietary basics to avoid a higher cancer risk include:
- If you can afford it, buy organic fruits and veggies
- When buying non-organic, make sure to thoroughly wash produce
- Avoid overcooking food
- Try to eat fewer red meats
Contributing: SurvivorNet staff
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