Earlier this week, the World Health Organization released a report claiming that bacon, along with other processed food and red meat, could actually cause cancer.
Now, a new report claims that fruits and vegetables have been linked to cancer. More specifically, the increased use of nitrate fertilizers have been related to a rise of gullet cancer or esophageal cancer in Britain.
According to The Guardian:
"The disease - which affects three times more men than women - kills more than 3,000 people in the UK every year, a threefold increase over the past 20 years. It is more common than stomach cancer.
"The increase has puzzled researchers. But Glasgow University researchers, led by Professor Kenneth McColl, have discovered a link between nitrates in fruit and vegetables and gullet cancer."
"We are still carrying out this study, and are certainly not saying people should stop eating vegetables," said Professor McColl. "But our investigations have shown that there is definitely something happening here."
Kenneth McColl continued, "It appears that the mass production of vegetables in the Western world since the last world war may be the underlying factor that has led to such huge increases in this form of cancer."
"We now want to determine if the permitted levels of nitrate fertilizers, which has fallen somewhat in recent years, may be partly to blame," he added.
Organic food might not be a solution to the problem either. McColl said that organic food as a healthier substitute was unlikely, simply because they still contain "substantial levels of nitrate, some of which came from natural fertilizers such as manure."
In fact, his research showed that green, along with root vegetables are those that consist of the highest amounts of nitrate.
Britain isn't the only country that has been affected with gullet cancer, McColl revealed that people in Scotland are affected by the disease more than any other part of the United Kingdom. For the past 20 years, cases of gullet cancer in Scotland have risen from 450 to over 1,100.
