READY meals, fizzy pop and white bread bump up your cancer risk, a study found.
Processed foods could increase your chances of disease even if you are a healthy weight.
Experts said junk food could increase your risk of ovarian cancer
Imperial College London scientists said scoffing junk is particularly bad for ovarian cancer and brain tumours.
Ten years of data from 200,000 Brits revealed the risks behind our favourite foods.
Study author Dr Kiara Chang said: “The average person in the UK consumes more than half of their daily energy intake from ultra-processed foods.
“This is exceptionally high and concerning as they are produced with industrially derived ingredients and often use food additives.
“Our bodies may not react the same way to these ingredients and additives as they do to fresh and nutritious minimally processed foods.”
Other ultra-processed foods include ham, crisps, breakfast cereals and sweets and chocolate.
The Cancer Research-funded study compared middle-aged people’s diets to their health records.
It found every 10 per cent increase in calories from processed foods was linked to a two per cent increase in cancer risk.
For ovarian cancer, which affects 7,500 women each year, the risk shot up by 19 per cent.
Chances of an early death from cancer also rose alongside junk food quantities, researchers wrote in the journal eClinicalMedicine.
The risk of dying of ovarian cancer was 30 per cent higher in the people who ate the most processed foods.
Dr Eszter Vamos added: “This study adds to the growing evidence that ultra-processed foods are likely to negatively impact our health including our risk for cancer.
“Given the high levels of consumption in UK adults and children, this has important implications.”
The new study comes after researchers found a link between sugar-sweetened drinks and bowel cancer.
It found adults, especially women, supping on two or more to quench their thirst each day are “doubling” the risk of bowel cancer before the age of 50.
Soft drinks, fruit flavoured drinks and sports and energy drinks all pose a significant threat, the study found.
In November 2022, experts revealed that eating a healthy veggie diet could slash your bowel cancer risk by a fifth – but only if you’re a man.
Around 43,000 Brits get the disease every year, making it one of the most common tumour types.
Half of cases could be avoided with better health, say experts, with swapping meat for vegetables and grains an easy win.
Scientists at Kyung Hee University in South Korea found colorectal cancer was 22 per cent less likely in men who ate the most fruit and veg, compared to those eating the least.
Cancer Research UK estimates 54 per cent of bowel cancer cases – 23,000 per year – could be prevented by healthier lifestyles.
