New Delhi:

Poor lifestyle choices with regular consumption of ultra-processed food, and a sedentary lifestyle are increasing cancer cases among people under 40 years of age in India, said doctors on Sunday.

Several factors are contributing to the rise in cancer cases among younger people in India.

One of the primary reasons is increased consumption of processed foods, tobacco, and alcohol, sedentary lifestyles, obesity, and stress.

Environmental pollution is another critical factor.

India’s cities are plagued by high levels of pollution, which has been linked to various types of cancer.

Air and water pollution expose individuals to carcinogenic substances, significantly increasing their cancer risk.

“Ultra-processed foods and sedentary lifestyles are emerging as significant contributors to the rising cancer rates among young Indians.

“The high intake of these foods, laden with unhealthy additives, combined with physical inactivity, is creating a health crisis,” Dr. Rahul Bhargava, Director and head of the Department of Haematology and BMT at Fortis Memorial Research Institute told IANS.

“It’s imperative to adopt healthier dietary habits and an active lifestyle to curb this alarming trend,” he added.

According to a recent study by Cancer Mukt Bharat Foundation, a Delhi-based non-profit foundation, 20 per cent of cancer cases in India are now being diagnosed in people below 40 years of age.

The study shows that men constitute 60 per cent of these young cancer patients, while women make up the remaining 40 per cent.

The gender disparity may be due to higher rates of tobacco use, occupational exposure, and lifestyle choices among men in India.

“In our country, escalating rates of obesity, change in dietary habits, specifically the increase in consumption of ultra-processed food, and sedentary lifestyles are associated with higher cancer rates,” said Dr. Ashish Gupta, principal investigator and senior oncologist at Unique Hospital Cancer Center, Delhi, told IANS.

The doctors called for the urgent need for lifestyle interventions to combat the rising cancer rates among young Indians. Dr. Ashish, also heading Cancer Mukt Bharat Campaign in India, emphasised the importance of a “combined effort from the government, healthcare professionals, and the community to tackle the rising cancer rates among young adults”.

“Policies promoting clean air and water, regular physical activity, and access to nutritious food must be prioritised. Additionally, we must invest in better healthcare infrastructure to ensure timely diagnosis and treatment,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Higher consumption of most ultra-processed foods is linked to a slightly higher risk of death, with ready-to-eat meat, poultry, and seafood based products, sugary drinks, dairy based desserts, and highly processed breakfast foods showing the strongest associations, finds a 30-year U.S. observational study. The results were published in the journal The BMJ.

The researchers say not all ultra-processed food products should be universally restricted, but that their findings “provide support for limiting consumption of certain types of ultra-processed food for long term health”. Mounting evidence links ultra-processed foods to higher risks of obesity, heart disease, diabetes and bowel cancer, but few long term studies have examined links to all causes and cause specific deaths, especially due to cancer.

To address this knowledge gap, researchers tracked the long-term health of 74,563 female registered nurses from 11 States in the Nurses’ Health Study (1984-2018) and 39,501 male health professionals from all 50 U.S. states in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1986-2018) with no history of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, or diabetes at study enrolment.

Every two years participants provided information on their health and lifestyle habits, and every four years they completed a detailed food questionnaire. Overall dietary quality was also assessed using the Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010 (AHEI) score. During an average 34-year follow-up period, the researchers identified 48,193 deaths, including 13,557 deaths due to cancer, 11,416 deaths due to cardiovascular diseases, 3,926 deaths due to respiratory diseases, and 6,343 deaths due to neurodegenerative diseases.

Compared with participants in the lowest quarter of ultra-processed food intake (average three servings per day), those in the highest quarter (average seven servings per day) had a 4% higher risk of total deaths and a 9% higher risk of other deaths, including an 8% higher risk of neurodegenerative deaths.

No associations were found for deaths due to cardiovascular diseases, cancer, or respiratory diseases. In absolute numbers, the rate of death from any cause among participants in the lowest and highest quarter of ultra-processed food intake was 1,472 and 1,536 per 100,000 person years, respectively.

The association between ultra-processed food intake and death varied across specific food groups, with meat, poultry, and seafood based ready-to-eat products showing the strongest and most consistent associations, followed by sugar sweetened and artificially sweetened beverages, dairy based desserts, and ultra-processed breakfast food. The association was less pronounced after overall dietary quality was taken into account, suggesting that dietary quality has a stronger influence on long term health than ultra-processed food consumption, note the authors.