Study: Consuming too much citrus could increase risk of skin cancer

Researchers have found that people who drink copious amounts of orange juice or eat a lot of grapefruit could be raising their risk of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.

In the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the researchers say that grapefruit and oranges contain compounds called furocoumarins and psoralen. Furocoumarins make the skin more sensitive to sunlight, and furocoumarins and psoralen cause melanoma cells to multiply when exposed to ultraviolet light. The team looked at more than 40,000 men participating in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study and more than 60,000 women in the Nurses' Health Study, and found that the risk of melanoma was very low, with fewer than 2 percent ending up with melanoma over the course of 25 years.

For those who ate or drank at least 1.6 six-ounce servings of citrus fruit or juice daily, the risk of getting melanoma was 36 percent higher compared to those who consumed them less than twice a week. Researchers looked at other factors, like smoking, but didn't find any other connections. "That was our first thought, that people who live in Florida and California were out in the sun more and eating more citrus," Dr. Walter Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health told NBC News. "But that did not turn out to be the case." While researchers aren’t saying to cut back on citrus just yet, they do urge people to always wear sunscreen.

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