Break the fast without boosting your risk of bowel cancer

Breakfast is arguably the single-most important meal of the day. There exists voluminous research on the role breakfast plays on weight loss, maintaining healthy blood sugars, and even keeping cholesterol in check. But this very healthy meal can turn quite unhealthy if the wrong foods end up on your plate.

Citing researchers from the World Cancer Research Fund, Men's Health reports that eating as few as one sausage or three pieces of bacon per day is enough to raise your risk of bowel cancer by as much as 20 percent. Evidently, the same risk also applies for ham, pastrami, or most other processed meats.

On the flip side, there are foods you can add to your breakfast that can reduce your chances of this type of cancer. Mushrooms, soy meat, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and other dark leafy vegetables can cut the risk of bowel cancer by 40 percent.

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