The Truth About Cancer and Breakfast: Why You Should Rethink These 3 Morning Meals

For years, Aunt Wang has enjoyed a simple and nutritious breakfast: a cup of fresh milk and two boiled eggs. She always thought it was both convenient and healthy.

One morning, her neighbor Aunt Li visited and noticed the eggs and milk on Aunt Wang’s table. She immediately said, “Wang, why are you still eating eggs and milk? The internet says these can ‘feed’ cancer cells.”

Can Eggs and Milk Really Feed Cancer Cells?

Aunt Wang felt a jolt of worry. She relies on eggs and milk every day for breakfast. “Don’t scare me. I can’t do without these two things every day,” she said uneasily.

“I’m not trying to scare you. I just recently attended a lecture where the speaker said so,” Aunt Li explained.

Aunt Wang frowned, starting to doubt her longstanding breakfast habit. Could it really be wrong?

With rising health awareness, people are increasingly concerned about the impact of their diet on overall well-being.

So, do eggs and milk really “feed” cancer cells? Which breakfasts should we avoid?

Milk and Preservatives: Myth or Reality?

Some believe that milk’s long shelf life is due to added preservatives. However, experts clarify that its longevity is due to different sterilization and packaging methods.

• Pasteurization: This low-temperature technique kills most bacteria while retaining some beneficial bacteria and nutrients. Pasteurized milk has a shorter shelf life, typically 2-7 days.
• Ultra-High Temperature (UHT) Sterilization: This method uses very high temperatures (over 130°C) to quickly sterilize milk and seal it in a sterile environment, allowing it to be stored for over 6 months.

Thus, no preservatives are needed to extend the shelf life, regardless of the method used.

There are rumors that milk contains insulin-like growth factors and tyrosine, which are carcinogenic. However, this is not true.

• Insulin-like Growth Factor: This protein naturally exists in the human body and regulates growth processes. Adequate intake is beneficial to health and is broken down and absorbed during digestion, not increasing blood concentration or causing cancer.
• Tyrosine: Milk contains tyrosine in very low amounts. To reach the carcinogenic dose observed in animal studies, a person would need to drink at least 9 liters of milk daily, which is impractical in real life.

Instead, we should be wary of these two “fake milks”:

• Modified Milk: Though milk is listed first in the ingredients, it also contains large amounts of sugar, water, and flavorings, greatly reducing its nutritional value.
• Milk Beverages: These mainly consist of water and white sugar, with lots of flavorings and sugars but very little actual milk content. Their nutritional value is far inferior to real milk, and long-term consumption can lead to obesity and malnutrition.

Boiled Eggs with Green Yolks: Cancer Risk or Harmless?

Some claim that overcooking boiled eggs causes a black membrane to form on the yolk, leading to developmental issues, anemia, hair loss, and even cancer. This is not credible.

• Sulfur-containing Amino Acids: Eggs contain these in large quantities. Overcooking releases hydrogen sulfide, which binds with iron in the yolk to form iron sulfide, creating a green membrane on the yolk.
• Iron Sulfide: This does not affect health. The amount of iron sulfide in egg yolks is negligible and poses no cancer risk.

Three Breakfasts to Avoid for Better Health

1. Fried Foods:
   • Items like deep-fried dough sticks, fritters, and sesame balls are favorites for many. However, high temperatures during frying destroy nutrients and produce carcinogens like benzopyrene and heterocyclic amines.
   • Fried foods contain large amounts of fat, leading to weight gain and increasing the risk of obesity and related diseases.
2. Pickles:
   • Pickles with porridge are a common choice, but they contain high salt levels, damaging the gastrointestinal mucosa over time.
   • During pickling, nitrites react with amines in meat, forming nitrosamines, a known carcinogen, increasing the risk of stomach and esophageal cancer.
3. Processed Meats:
   • Ham, hot dogs, bacon, and canned meats contain added nitrites that react with proteins to form nitrosamines.
   • These meats are high in fat and salt, leading to obesity, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases with regular consumption.

Conclusion

The real health hazards are not natural foods like eggs and milk but over-processed, nutritionally imbalanced foods. For better health, avoid these unhealthy breakfasts and start focusing on dietary health for yourself and your family.