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These danishes look good, but sugary, carbohydrate-heavy foods may increase your risk of lung cancer, according to a new study

Tobacco is the No. 1 cause of lung cancer, but too many bad carbs may increase your risk, particularly if you don't smoke, according to a new Houston study.

MD Anderson researchers reported Friday a diet rich in foods that trigger fast-rising levels of blood sugar was significantly associated with lung cancer risk in particular subgroups, such as people who have never smoked and those diagnosed with a slow growing lung cancer type, known as squamous cell carcinoma, typically not detected until it has spread.

"Although smoking is a major, well-characterized risk factor for lung cancer, it does not account for all the variations in lung cancer risk," Dr. Xifeng Wu, an MD Anderson epidemiologist and the study's senior author, said in a news release. "This study provides additional evidence that diet may independently, and jointly with other risk factors, impact lung cancer etiology."

Wu's team reported the findings in this week's issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. The study is the largest ever to investigate possible links between lung cancer and glycemic index (GI), which measures the rise in a person's blood sugar level following consumption of the food.

Study participants whose diet had the highest glycemic index levels had a 49 percent greater risk for developing lung cancer than their counterparts whose diet had the lowest level. Those in the highest quintile had a 92 percent higher risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma than those in the lowest quintile. There was much less of an association with adenocarcinoma, another type of lung cancer. Among those who had never smoked, those in the highest quartile were more than twice as likely to develop cancer.

The study looked at the health and dietary histories of more than 1,900 newly diagnosed MD Anderson lung cancer patients and 2,413 "healthy" controls subjects selected from patient lists at Kelsey-Seybold. Foods were assigned glycemic index values and study subjects were categorized into corresponding quintiles. All participants were non-Hispanic whites.

While specific dietary recommendations cannot be made on the basis of the study findings, the authors suggested people limit high-GI foods such as white bread and potatoes and corn flakes.

Lung cancer is the nation's second most common in both men and women and by far the deadliest, accounting for 150,000 deaths annually, more than breast, colon and prostate combined. Smoking causes about 80 to 90 percent of cases.

