09/06/2025
We assume we’ll live as long as our parents, but evidence seems to suggest otherwise.
(Yes, this relates to our pets as well as us).
I was speaking with an expert on colon cancer today about the divide between over 50s and under 50s, and if you’re in the latter group the odds seem to be less in your favour.
In the 25 to 49 age group, incidents of colon cancer show an approximate 50% rise since the 1990s.
Doesn’t that ring alarm bells?
Even more so when you consider incidents in the 50s and 60s have generally stabilised or are even declining.
So what’s changed?
The truth is we’ll likely never know, so can only hypothesise.
Is diet the likely cause?
Yes, I strongly suspect this to be the #1 cause, and I draw on my experience of pet food trends for this - especially when so many of our pets die of diet-related disease which comes as no surprise given the processed pellets we feed them.
Our lifestyles have changed. Do you sit at a desk for endless hours like I do?
Perhaps medications and antibiotics play a part, disrupting our gut and immune system? It’s probably socially unacceptable to even suggest this these days, so let’s get back to diet.
I’m approaching 50 (a few years to go), and I’m very aware of the changes in diet of my generation.
As a kid I remember the microwave as the latest marvellous invention, which unleashed all manner of convenience meals to alleviate the efforts of struggling parents.
Roast beef and veg made way for Findus Crispy Pancakes, Pot Noodles, and microwave curries. Kids no longer had eggs for breakfast, as kids of the 80s were hooked on Frosties and other sugary cereal with delightful free plastic toys.
Who remembers Pop Tarts?
These were the staple foods of my generation, and it’s arguably worse for latter generations.
When you see litter left by teenagers - energy drinks of liquid sugar and chemicals, vapes, and reams of other garbage - it makes complete sense our younger generations are more susceptible to colon and other cancers than older generations who still eat proper foods.
Most of the time “processed” or “junk” food is so normal we don’t even consider it.
If everyone else eats all these convenience products, then what are the chances it will be us who gets that unlucky cancer diagnosis?
Well, according to research, much more likely than it was for our parents.
Stop assuming junk food products are healthy or beneficial because the marketing cleverly suggests they are, even if they’re supposedly backed by some ridiculously construed “science”.
