TO AVOID CANCER, EAT MORE FRUIT, STUDY FINDS

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Wednesday, March 21, 2007 Washington (Reuters) as reported on

News

 

People who eat a diet high in fruit and low in meat reduce their risk

of developing colon cancer, researchers reported on Wednesday.

 

Their study supports other research showing that meat can raise the

risk of getting cancer, especially colon cancer, and offers details

about what other factors in the diet might be important.

 

The team at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill

interviewed 724 people who had just had colonoscopies about their

diet, smoking and other habits.

 

Of these, 203 had learned they had adenomas, polyps that often turn

into tumors and are removed during a colonoscopy.

 

Gregory Austin and colleagues analyzed the answers and found there

were three groups – people who ate a lot of fruit but little meat,

people who ate a lot of vegetables and a moderate amount of meat, and

people who simply ate a lot of meat.

 

The people who recalled eating large or moderate amounts of meat were

70 percent more likely to have had a polyp than those who said they

ate a lot of fruit but little meat.

 

Writing in the Journal of Nutrition, the researchers said they wanted

to know if eating plenty of greens might counteract the bad effects

of meat.

 

" Several studies have found a protective effect of fruit and

vegetable consumption, but multiple other studies have found no

association between fruit and vegetable consumption and the risk of

having or developing a colorectal neoplasm (tumor or pre-tumor), "

they wrote.

 

Colon cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths in the

United States after lung cancer, with a projected 52,000 deaths in

2007.

 

" The high meat cluster (345 people) was the largest of the three

clusters and represented a more typical American diet, " the

researchers wrote.

 

These people ate fewer whole grains than recommended, far fewer

fruits and vegetables than they should and more fat and sugar than

others.

 

Just 18 percent of the people who said they ate a lot of fruit but

little meat had a polyp, compared to 30 percent of the moderate meat-

eaters and 32 percent of people in the high meat-eating group.