I guess it's all good for the MSM to be all kinds of deceptive to get clicks by posting up a headline that makes it sound as though eating fruits and vegetables may cause cancer. Once you read the article though it's the pesticides as the "suspected" culprit, among other environmental concerns, as if that wasn't your go to thought in the first place, but hey, it worked to get more clicks. They recommended people wash, scrub and rinse their produce before consuming, but you make note that rinsing the chemical down the drain could come back potentially three fold to bite you, and you get met with the usual that your comment goes against their community standards. My comment was within range of how the FDA and EPA cites as examples of how 1,4 dioxane gets into the water supply. I guess you can only strike fear in people's hearts when the story has a good ending.
Fruits and vegetables may increase your cancer risk, new research shows
A new study from researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) has suggested that diets rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains may possibly be linked to a higher risk of early‑onset lung cancer.
The study found this correlation specifically in younger people who have never smoked.
Health experts stress, however, the findings do not mean fruits and vegetables cause cancer and the overall benefits of eating produce still overwhelmingly outweigh any potential risks.
Why It Matters
Fruits and vegetables are widely seen as essential to a healthy diet and key tools for cancer prevention, making this study’s findings especially striking.
At the same time, the research taps into a real and growing concern among scientists as to why lung cancer rates are rising in younger people who have never smoked, particularly women. If environmental exposures such as pesticides are contributing even indirectly, it could point to broader issues with agricultural practices, regulation and long‑term chemical exposure.
What To Know
The research, conducted by scientists at USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, focused on an unusual and growing trend: rising lung cancer diagnoses among non‑smokers under age 50, particularly women.
Researchers analyzed data from the Epidemiology of Young Lung Cancer Project, which included 187 patients diagnosed with lung cancer before age 50, with women accounting for 78 percent of the cohort. Most participants had never smoked, and many had tumor types that differ biologically from lung cancers typically associated with smoking.
When researchers examined lifestyle factors, one result stood out: patients with early‑onset lung cancer reported eating significantly more fruits, vegetables and whole grains than the general population. Their diets scored higher on the Healthy Eating Index, a measure of overall diet quality.
“Our research shows that younger non-smokers who eat a higher quantity of healthy foods than the general population are more likely to develop lung cancer,” Jorge Nieva, MD, a medical oncologist and lung cancer specialist with USC Norris and lead investigator of the study, said in a statement. “These counter-intuitive findings raise important questions about an unknown environmental risk factor for lung cancer related to otherwise beneficial food that needs to be addressed.”
Nieva and other researchers speculated pesticides could be the risk factor in question.
However, experts do not believe that fruits and vegetables themselves are harmful.
According to Nieva, commercially grown (non‑organic) produce tends to carry higher pesticide residues than many processed foods, dairy products or meats. Previous research has shown that agricultural workers exposed to pesticides have higher lung cancer rates, lending some support to the hypothesis.
Outside experts have urged the public not to interpret the findings as a reason to cut back on fruits and vegetables, and decades of large‑scale studies show diets rich in produce are linked to lower risks of heart disease, stroke, obesity and many types of cancer.
“In our study and for the U.S. on average, women seem to have much healthier diets than men, and this might mean greater relative exposure to any contaminants that may be in whole grains, fruits and vegetables,” Nieva said, per Medical News Today.
The Dirty Dozen
According to a report released earlier this year by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a health advocacy organization, the following produce held the highest levels of potentially harmful pesticide residues based on tests conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on 54,344 samples of 47 fruits and vegetables.
Spinach
Kale, Collard and Mustard Greens
Strawberries
Grapes
Nectraines
Peaches
Cherries
Apples
Blackberries
Pears
Potatoes
Blueberries
What Happens Next
The USC team said further research is needed to directly measure pesticide exposure and confirm whether it plays a role in early‑onset lung cancer.
For people concerned about pesticide exposure, washing produce thoroughly, peeling when appropriate, and choosing organic options when feasible could help, especially for fruits and vegetables known to carry higher residue levels.
My "censored" comment"
You can wash, scrub and rinse the veggies and fruits and there's the chance the chemicals you rinsed down the drain will come back to haunt you three-fold depending upon if that water is eventually sent off to the place it was drawn from. Since pesticides are not the only items where polyalkoxylated surfactants are allowed under safe use parts per million, you're likely to get back what you rinsed down the drain, what your neighbors use of the same ingredient in their laundry soap, make up, shampoos, household cleaners, etc., etc., as long as each manufacturer stays under the limit, the limits together finally start to add up, a little dab here, a little dab there, and before you know it, you are above the daily recommended amount. Those polyalkoxylated surfactants are, thanks to Monsanto widely known now as glyphosate, who is innocent of all charges. Chances are slim to none that glyphosate is in any of those other products unless, of course, they needed a chelator to help adhere to something, which is all glyphosate was guilty of, helping the polyalkoxylated surfactant stick to the weeds to kill them. When it came to Round Up, it was the polyoxyethylene alkylamine contaminated with 1,4 dioxane, an allowed inert ingredient by the EPA, that the EPA and the FDA all state that 1,4 dioxane is a known carcinogenic when tested in large quantities in mice but are considered safe in humans for use in small quantities, those quantities can be as high as 350 ppm in Round Up. 1,4 dioxane is known to cause damage to the liver, kidneys, brain and yes, the lungs. Wash, scrub, rinse all you like, chances are good, they'll just come back to haunt you.