I feel like I am always hearing about how things are carcinogenic, like red meat or air conditioners or aspartame. Why does it seem like *so* many things are carcinogenic and does that mean they cause cancer? Because it’s starting to feel like everything causes cancer…
This is the type of thing that gets my anxiety going so I’d love if someone who understands this better than I do can explain it.
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Unlike a lot of the answers that seem to treat cancer as ultra rare and nothing to worry about: Let’s be crystal clear. It’s a REAL thing, and more often than not, it’s going to kill you if you get it. What’s more, the treatment can almost be like dying itself, and you may well bankrupt your family in the process. So, seriously: you really don’t want it.
Anyway: Every now and then a senior cancer researcher gets asked something along the lines of: “OK, so what are things that YOU avoid to lessen your chances of cancer, knowing what you know?” The things that they say fall into two categories:
1. Those they absolutely avoid: smoking and basically anything to do with tobacco. Never spending any time in the sun without sunscreen. Avoid consuming foods with a lot or artificial flavors/colors or sweetners. These are things that are simple and you won’t be missing anything either.
2. Things they avoid, but don’t lose sleep over if it’s in moderation: Red meats, moderate alcohol consumption, foods with sugar, and… burnt toast. Turns out, really burnt “anything” is actually pretty bad to ingest. But a burnt marshmallow or two once a summer is not going to be a big deal.
The thing is, stress, anger and general continuous exposure to plastics is probably worse than most of category 2, so there’s an area most modern humans could really work on.
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