A higher intake of ultra processed food (UPF) is linked to an increased risk of lung cancer, suggests research published online in the respiratory journal Thorax.
Further research is warranted in different population groups, but limiting consumption of these foods may help curb the global toll of the disease, say the researchers.
This is an observational study, and as such, no firm conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect. And the researchers acknowledge that they weren’t able to factor in smoking intensity, which may have been influential. Dietary information was collected only once, so couldn’t account for changes over time, and the number of cancer diagnoses was small.
