From burnt toast, to sweeteners and mobile phones… the biggest cancer myths debunked

Claims that eating burnt toast and keeping your phone in your pocket will lead to cancer have been circulating for years.

But what is the truth?

To help you separate fact from fiction, MailOnline debunks five of the biggest myths surrounding the cause of cancer…

Mobile phones

Rumors have been circulating for decades that electromagnetic radiation or waves from cell phones can cause cancer.

But researchers say there is no good evidence this is the case, despite many fearing that holding their phone close to their body puts them at risk.

Cell phones work by sending and receiving electromagnetic waves to and from telephone towers.

While high-energy radiation can cause cancer by damaging DNA, the version emitted by phones is so weak that it does not have this effectsays Cancer Research UK.

The charity adds that although 4G and 5G networks rely on higher frequency radio waves to work compared to phones made a decade ago, it is still not enough energy to damage DNA.

But because the technology is still relatively new, scientists continue to monitor research in this area to identify any long-term effects.

Burnt toast

Scraping off the burnt bits from your toast won’t save you from cancer, experts say.

Burnt toast, charred root vegetables and fried potatoes all contain a chemical called acrylamide, which occurs naturally in foods that have been cooked at high temperatures for a long time.

Some studies have linked the substance to cancer.

However, Cancer Research UK says the evidence is not strong enough that foods that are fried, barbecued, fried, grilled, roasted or broiled increase the risk of cancer.

Some studies failed to accurately measure the amount of acrylamide in people’s diets, says Cancer Research UK.

According to US health chiefs, it has also only been proven to be carcinogenic in animals, at a much higher dose than in human food.

For example, a renowned statistician from the University of Cambridge suggested that a person would only be at risk if they ate 320 slices of burnt toast every day.

Instead, experts say it’s not the way you cook your food, but the food you eat that can increase your risk of cancer.

For example, bacon is a processed meat and regardless of how it is cooked, it has been linked to increasing the risk of developing colon cancer.

This is because it contains nitrates and nitrites, which are chemicals that keep meat fresh for longer but have been linked to damage to the cells lining the gut and an increased risk of bowel cancer, according to Cancer Research UK.

However, eating a balanced diet full of vegetables, fruits and fiber-rich foods, including brown bread, rice and pasta, can help you reduce your risk of cancer.

Tension

Studies have found that some women wonder whether stress caused their breast cancer.

But the evidence for this is poor.

A big study of over 100,000 women in Britain in 2016 showed no consistent evidence linking stress to breast cancer.

Another 2013 analysiswhich looked at 12 studies involving more than 100,000 people and followed over several years, found no link between stress at work and colorectal, lung, breast or prostate cancer.

However, a special one paper in 2022 suggested that there could be a link between the body’s exposure to cortisol, the stress hormone, and cancer.

And another study this week suggested that stress causes cancers to grow and spread.

Although stress has not been directly linked to the disease, long periods of stress have been linked to high blood pressure and depression, according to the NHS.

It can also be more difficult to maintain a healthy lifestyle during stressful situations, such as not smoking and drinking. These habits can lead to an increased risk of cancer, Cancer Research UK warns.

But the agency insists there is “no evidence” to show that “those who are more stressed are more likely to develop cancer.”

Artificial sweeteners

Carbonated diet drinks, chewing gum and toothpaste, along with hundreds of other products, contain artificial sweeteners such as aspartame.

There is evidence that aspartame, which has been used in products since the 1980s, can cause cancer.

It prompted the World Health Organization to classify the sweetener as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” in June 2023.

However, experts say people would have to consume it in extremely large quantities – more than a dozen cans a day – for it to have this effect, and criticized the UN health agency for causing unnecessary mass panic.

The ingredient is strictly regulated in Britain. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has set the acceptable daily intake of aspartame at approximately 14 cans of carbonated diet drink for a person weighing approximately 70 kg.

This means that it is very unlikely that most people will consume an unsafe amount.

Cancer Research UK agrees that there is ‘no convincing evidence that artificial sweeteners such as aspartame cause cancer’.

Drinking from a plastic bottle

There have long been fears that plastic water bottles, lunch boxes and food packaging contain cancer-causing chemicals.

Bisphenol A, also known as BPA, is a chemical found in plastic bottles and containers and is thought to leach into food and drink and disrupt hormones.

As a result, it has been strongly linked to – but not proven to be the cause of – a range of health problems, including reproductive health problems, diabetes and obesity.

One 2015 judgement by researchers in the US of the carcinogenic properties in BPA recommended that it should be classified as a cancer risk to humans.

Although studies have shown that the chemical has carcinogenic effects, these experiments involve human cells in a laboratory or animals.

This is very different to how people would come into contact with these chemicals in real life, Cancer Research UK warns.

The charity explains that some studies have put a lot of the chemical directly into one type of cell, which would not happen in the body.

Another 2018 study by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which exposed laboratory animals to BPA, found little evidence that the chemical causes cancer.

The Food Standards Agency also ruled that the levels of BPA found in food in Britain to date are not considered harmful.

In the EU, the plastic used for baby bottles and toys must be BPA-free and many reusable plastic water bottles and containers are BPA-free.