INSECTICIDES ON FOOD

Report #7285

If insecticides sprayed on foods cause cancer in humans, people who eat the most fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans should have the most cancer and they do not.

A report from the Canadian National Cancer Institute (1) came to the same conclusions as a report from The National Academy of Sciences in the United States that there is no evidence that insecticides in foods cause cancer. The United States report states that one third of new cancer cases each year can be traced to diet: eating too much food and fat, but not to the insecticides and additives in fruits and vegetables. All plants contain natural insecticides to protect them from being eaten by insects. Most man-made insecticides today are copies of plant-made ones. Organic farmers grind up chrysanthemum leaves and spray them on their plants. Manufacturers make copies of chemicals in chrysanthemums and sell them as insecticides. Scientists have been unable to show that man-made chemicals are more likely to cause cancer than chemicals made by chrysanthemums. If insecticides cause cancers, studies should show that people who eat lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans are at increased risk for cancer. Virtually all recent studies show that the people who eat the most produce are the ones least likely to suffer heart attacks and certain cancers.

The report cautions people about eating huge amounts of one type of food, as all foods contain some chemicals that have been shown to cause cancers and some that have been shown to prevent them. For example, broccoli contains cancer-causing chlorogenic acid and cancer-preventing, sulforophane and vitamin C. Soybeans contain genistein which prevents breast cancer, but you should not try to eat large amounts of soybeans (3) You can get genistein in wheat, walnuts and other foods at the produce counter, and overloading on soybeans can increase your intake of fat which can make you fat and increase your chances of getting a heart attack. The healthiest diet includes lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans, and restricts fat and too much food.

By Gabe Mirkin, M.D., for CBS Radio News