Are starchy foods the new cigarette?

Even if you don’t smoke, a high-glycemic diet can lead to lung cancer.

That’s the surprising finding of a new study by the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. It found that people with a high-glycemic diet have a dramatically higher risk of lung cancer… Even if they don’t smoke.1

Researchers studied more than 1,900 lung cancer patients and more than 2,400 cancer-free people.

The scientists focused on the glycemic index of the subjects’ diets. Starchy foods, such as white bread and potatoes, have high-glycemic indexes. They cause spikes in blood sugar levels.

The people with the highest glycemic diets had a 49% greater risk of developing lung cancer than those with the lowest.2 Among nonsmokers, a high-glycemic diet more than doubled the odds of lung cancer.

Tobacco use is the leading cause of lung cancer. But researchers have long been puzzled by non-smokers getting the disease. This new study helps provide the answer.3

Besides white bread and potatoes, high-glycemic foods include white rice, bagels, pretzels, and corn flakes.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. It kills more than 150,000 Americans a year.

In Good Health,

Angela Salerno
Publisher, INH Health Watch

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References:
1http://consumer.healthday.com/cancer-information-5/lung-cancer-news-100/could-certain-high-carb-diets-up-lung-cancer-risk-for-non-smokers-708645.html
2http://news.health.com/2016/03/04/can-certain-poor-carb-diets-raise-nonsmokers-lung-cancer-risk/
3https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160304091915.htm
4http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/12188092/Alzheimers-disease-could-be-caused-by-herpes-virus-warn-experts.html
5http://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/news/20141024/studies-link-cold-sore-virus-to-alzheimers-risk