Eating ourselves to Cancers: Is there an Association between Cancers and Nutrition?

Abstract

Malignant neoplasms, which are widely referred to as cancers, are among the top ten leading causes of mortality in the World as well as in Jamaica. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (and, a) classified cancers into six (6) main groups: 1. Carcinoma, 2. Sarcoma, 3. Myeloma, 4. Leukemia, 5. Lymphoma, and 6. Mixed types. In 2020, statistics published by the World Health Organization (WHO, 2021) indicated that cancers accounted for 4,576 deaths (male, 53.7%, n=2457; female, 46.3%, n=2119) in Jamaica with the leading cause being prostate (18.5%, n=844), breast (13.9%, n=637), lung (10.2%, n=468), colorectum (8.7%, n=398), Cervix uteri (5.4%, n=247), Stomach (4.2%, n=192), Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (3.3%, n=150), and corpus uteri (141). There is a similarity between the types of cancer in Jamaica and the rest of the World. The nutritional habits of high meat and animal product consumption are linked with several types of cancer. Across many nations, the cancer rate rises and falls because of different environmental and nutritional factors. Countries with meat-eating diets as their predominant source of protein are equipped with evidence of the incidence and prevalence of colorectal and another specific types of cancer. Jamaicans have crossed a nutritional fault line and are eating themselves to cancer and, by extension, death, and this means there is a need to implement a national public health campaign on healthy and responsible eating as well as punitive measures for fast/junk food and high-sugar beverages.