Out with tea, white bread and red meat. In with fruit… and pizza!
To mark 30 years of delivering life-changing research and health information advice, World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) is highlighting how the nation’s eating and food shopping habits have changed – alongside people’s awareness of cancer prevention. The study is being released as part of its 30 Days Has September campaign.
A lot has changed in 30 years – fashion, culture, sport, music. But there have also been changes in what we know about the links between diet and the risks of developing cancer.
As part of WCRF’s 30th birthday, the charity looked back on data collected annually by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs on weekly food purchasing to see how diets have changed over 30 years.
Less meat… but more chocolate
The data revealed that in 2018, compared to 1992, we are buying
50% less tea
56% less white bread
32% less red meat (pork, lamb and beef)
23% more fresh fruit
Lowering consumption of red meat and eating more plant-based foods both help to lower cancer risk. However, while the nation has become healthier in some aspects, we’ve also started buying more unhealthy food such as confectionery. Chocolate bar consumption rose 13% over the same period.
Who ate all the pizza? 143% more!
One major influence on the nation’s dietary habits has been the advance in technology. Freezers and microwaves are now commonplace in the British kitchen. We’ve become much more reliant on ready meals instead of home cooking.
Ready meal purchases have doubled since 1992
Sales of pizza (frozen, not-frozen and takeaway) have increased by 143%
Overweight and obesity rates have increased in England from 53% of adults in 1993 to 63% in 2018
Alcohol purchasing has also increased by 38%.
Eating fast foods and having a ‘Western-type’ diet, characterised by high intakes of meat, fat and sugar, are linked to excess weight gain.
Drinking alcohol is strongly linked to six different types of cancer, including breast cancer.
“People are more reliant on processed foods,” says Dr Giota Mitrou
Dr Giota Mitrou, Director of Research at WCRF, said, “Our world-leading research shows that being overweight or obese increases the risk of at least 12 different types of cancer.
“The rise in overweight and obesity is not due to one food alone being eaten more, but rather our overall behaviour patterns changing. This is known as the nutrition transition. It has resulted in people being more reliant on processed foods that are high in fat, salt or sugar.
“That is why we recognise the need to focus more on dietary patterns instead of individual foods or food components. It’s also why our Cancer Prevention Recommendations should be followed as a package of healthy behaviours for maximum benefit.”
Moderate changes can reduce your risk
Rachael Gormley, CEO of WCRF UK, said, “When WCRF was founded in the UK 30 years ago, the link between diet and cancer wasn’t widely known.
“Since 1990, WCRF has invested more than £100m in cancer prevention and survival research. Today, thanks in part to our key role in funding research and public health messaging, more people than ever before are now aware that they can lower their risk of cancer through making moderate, but impactful, changes to their diet and lifestyle.”
This summer, the government announced a new initiative. The Better Health campaign aims to get people to eat more healthily and move more to lose weight.
Pic: Shutterstock
Previous public health campaigns over the decades have had moderate success. 2004’s Sid the Slug campaign led to a reduction of around 10% in salt in diets.
The 5 A Day campaign, launched in 2003, led to an initial increase in people eating five different fruit and vegetables each day. However in 2018 this had stalled at around 28%.
The most obvious explanation is we are a lot less active than we were in the past. We walk a lot less and do less physical work. We snack more and consume a growing number of calories from sugary drinks, crisps and chocolate. We also eat a lot more processed foods, which are notoriously high in sugar and salt.
How America's diet has changed over the decades. Americans eat more chicken and less beef than they used to. They drink less milk – especially whole milk – and eat less ice cream, but they consume way more cheese. Their diets include less sugar than in prior decades but a lot more corn-derived sweeteners.
Some of the major changes in the human diet over the last three decades include: Increased consumption of processed and convenience foods: With the growth of urbanization, the availability of processed and convenience foods has increased significantly.
How may eating habits change in the coming decades? Answer: I firmly believe that with “globalization” at such a rapid pace, people will actually forget about the “idea” eating traditional food as we all will start preparing and enjoying all kinds of food from different parts of the world.
In modern times, two main innovations have enabled food production to keep pace with a booming population: fertilisers and machinery. Introduced in the early 1900s, synthetic fertilisers dramatically increased crop yields, removing the need for farmers to use fallows or manure to renew the soil.
The last 20 years have dramatically altered the way middle-class Americans eat: Growing awareness of climate change, wider interest in conscious capitalism, and the mainstreaming of what was once a niche market for health enthusiasts and allergy-prone consumers has proven just how good for business "good for the planet ...
Previously, the American diet was largely meat and potatoes, only later growing to include fruits, vegetables, and milk. But as manufacturers began to streamline their production of canned and frozen food, these packed and prepared items became extremely popular.
We eat far more food today than we did 100 years ago. You would think that the rapid growth of the fast food industry would have taken its toll on our health, but in fact the food we buy today has actually become healthier.
In some ways Victorians had a healthier diet than we do now because they ate much more nutrient-rich food and consumed far less sugar and processed food.
This means that from the time of H. erectus, the human body has depended on a diet of energy-dense food—especially meat. Fast-forward a couple of million years to when the human diet took another major turn with the invention of agriculture.
By 2050, individuals will be eating cultured, or cultivated, meat, high-protein insects, seaweed, algae, and allergen-free nuts. All of this food is rich in essential vitamins and minerals and high in protein.
In the past, people ate simple snacks, like fruit for example, that were not so much processed. But that seems to have changed a lot since the 19th century, when people started eating a lot of processed foods rich in saturated fat, sugar, and salt.
This could explain why fruits and vegetables are not only good for us but are vital to our survival. Indeed, we're one of the few species so adapted to a plant-based diet that we could actually die from not eating fruits and vegetables, from the vitamin C-deficiency disease, scurvy.
People were all about finger food in the 1970s, and cheese balls were especially popular. Cheese balls were a common appetizer for the same reasons they're still beloved today: they're simple to make, super sharable, and please crowds no matter where they're served.
This is transforming the food industry as regulators, food producers, sellers and consumers demand a more consistent approach to food safety and quality standards across geographies. Risks are increasing and maintaining oversight over food supply chains is becoming more challenging.
The main findings provided information about a shift towards modified eating behaviours, characterized by an increased snack frequency and a preference for sweets and ultra-processed food rather than fruits, vegetables, and fresh food. Additionally, an increased alcohol consumption was found among different countries.
Reduced physical activity and increased consumption of low-nutrient calorie-dense foods are both major contributors, and health authorities believe that the prevalence of advertising for unhealthy food on children's television is a leading cause of children's increasingly unhealthy diet (Brownell & Horgen, 2004; ...
Introduction: My name is Aracelis Kilback, I am a nice, gentle, agreeable, joyous, attractive, combative, gifted person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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