These habits can greatly increase your cancer risk

Want to lower your cancer risk? Updated guidelines published by the American Cancer Society (ACS) in early June point to a few well-known goals—reducing body weight, eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, limiting alcohol consumption, and minding your living environment—as the keys to unlocking better cancer protection.

These goals might sound straightforward, but seemingly simple concepts like “eating a healthy diet” and “minding your living environment” are complicated by commonly held misconceptions and huge systemic challenges. That’s why in this year’s guidelines, the ACS recommends against five specific behaviors that many might assume are healthy but have been shown to greatly increase cancer risk.

Eating too much red meat

It’s been established that red meat could influence your risk of cardiovascular disease, but did you know that it could also increase your risk for cancer? In 2015, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) noted that lower levels of red meat consumption could decrease the risks of some types of cancer, as well as obesity and type 2 diabetes in adults. Red meat was classified as a “probable” human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in 2015, while processed meat was classified as a group I carcinogen.

More recent studies have also linked higher levels of red meat consumption to increased cancer risk. Although this specific correlation needs to be investigated further, other studies have shown that switching to a Mediterranean diet, which is rich in plant foods and low in animal products and refined carbohydrates, may counteract DNA changes and slow down the development of cancer.

Relying on dietary supplements for nutrition

While there is ample evidence to suggest that a healthy diet decreases cancer risk, substituting the nutrients that you’d normally get from a healthy diet with dietary supplements doesn’t appear to have the same effect—the available evidence is just too inconsistent and unreliable to make that claim, according to ACS. Food remains the best source of vitamins, minerals, and other bioactive food components. If you plan to use dietary supplements for general health purposes, the best choice, according to the ACS, is a balanced multivitamin/mineral supplement containing no more than 100% of the recommended daily value of each of the nutrients it contains.

A clue to dietary supplements’ core use can be found in their name—they’re designed to be supplemental to your diet and are not intended to replace nutrition from food. Still, more than half of US adults use one or more dietary supplements. That’s just fine for those who stand to benefit, including people looking to prevent nutrient deficiency, like pregnant women and people with restricted dietary intakes. But, for those looking to reduce their risk of cancer, a healthy diet is the safest bet.

Being too sedentary

Researchers have estimated that people spend more than half of their time engaging in non-occupational activities, of which 62% are sedentary. While the connection between physical activity and lower cancer risk is supported by only slight evidence, sedentary time has recently been investigated as a separate contributing factor to the development of cancer. More research is needed to draw conclusions, but moderate evidence suggests that a sedentary lifestyle is associated with an increased risk of endometrial, colon, and lung cancers.

Adults should participate in moderate-intensity exercise for at least 150 minutes per week or high-intensity exercise for 75 minutes, according to ACS guidelines. It’s important to note that any exercise is better than none—even standing while doing computer work may have health benefits.

Consuming too much alcohol

Alcohol is a known human carcinogen. Inside the body, alcohol is broken down into acetaldehyde, a chemical that damages DNA and prevents repair. This damage can lead to cell overgrowth, in turn creating cancer tumors. The ACS recommends completely eliminating alcohol consumption. But, for those who are unwilling to make this change, the organization stresses that women should consume no more than one standard alcoholic drink per day, and men should consume no more than two.

Cancer isn’t the only disease you might avoid by limiting alcohol consumption—high blood pressure, liver disease, and depression rank among the long list of health risks, according to the CDC.

Ignoring your living environment

The ACS’ acknowledgment of systemic barriers to equitable cancer prevention is a key element of its June 2020 report. While healthy practices mostly amount to individual choice, unhealthy dieting and a lack of physical activity can be influenced by your living environment. For some, this might be a choice. For others, it might be out of their control.

Living environments that are not conducive to exercise and neighborhoods that lack low- or no-cost options for exercise, as well as the excessive marketing of high‐calorie foods and beverages of low nutritional value, are just a few of the obstacles standing between vulnerable populations and effective cancer-prevention habits. Lower-income individuals, racial and ethnic minority groups, persons with disabilities, and those residing in areas with little to no access to supermarkets (which has been directly associated with unhealthy dietary patterns), face these challenges at a much higher rate, according to the ACS.

The organization stressed that public, private, and community groups must make a collective effort to make quality nutrition more affordable,build safe exercise opportunities, reconsider alcoholic beverage legislation, and increase treatment for addiction. Here are a few ways you can help improve circumstances in your community:

• Encourage your local grocery stores to stock healthier foods 

• Transform vacant spaces into community gardens (where legal) and spend more time cooking over eating out

• Advocate for a transportation system that encourages walking and bicycling

• Advocate for physical education in schools

• Explore healthy alternatives to alcohol to help alleviate stress, like exercise, meditation, and new hobbies

• Join community task forces to help solve critical issues that remain unaddressed

Bottom line

In the United States, cancer is expected to kill more than 600,000 people in 2020, making it the second-leading cause of death. By this number alone, it’s clear that current cancer prevention strategies are not doing enough to lower the burden of disease.

While much of that burden can be attributed to individual habits—like a poor diet, too much alcohol consumption, and a lack of exercise—it’s important that leaders in healthcare and government consider systemic approaches to ensuring that everyone has equitable opportunities to practice better habits and reduce the number of people who develop cancer due to factors beyond their control.