The regular practice of physical exercise and following a balanced diet are key to preventing diseases such as obesity or diabetes, considered two serious threats to public health globally, and there is more and more scientific evidence that demonstrates the benefits of consumption. of certain foods. Now, a new study has found that a healthy plant-based diet rich in vegetables, whole grains, nuts and legumes can help reduce the risk of colorectal cancer in men by 22%.
The research involved 79,952 men and 93,475 women residing in the United States with an average age of 60 and 59 years, respectively. The results showed that men who ate a greater amount of healthy plant-based foods had a 22% lower risk of developing bowel cancer compared to those who ate less, although this association was not found in the case of women.
“Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide, and the lifetime risk of developing colorectal cancer is one in 23 for men and one in 25 for women,” said Jihye Kim, from Kyung Hee University in South Korea and author of the study, which has been published in BMC Medicine.
“Our findings suggest that eating a healthy plant-based diet is associated with a reduced risk of colorectal cancer.”
“Although previous research has suggested that plant-based diets may play a role in preventing colorectal cancer, the impact of the nutritional quality of plant foods on this association has been unclear. Our findings suggest that eating a healthy plant-based diet is associated with a reduced risk of colorectal cancer.”
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Researchers asked participants how often they ate and drank certain foods from a list of more than 180 items, and were asked to also report portion sizes. These people could indicate that they ate each food “never or almost never”, or even “two or more times a day”. For drinks, responses ranged from “never or almost never” to “four or more times a day.”
The food groups were classified as healthy plant foods (whole grains, fruits, vegetables, vegetable oils, nuts, legumes such as lentils and chickpeas, tea and coffee), less healthy plant foods (refined grains, fruit juices, potatoes, sugars added) and foods of animal origin (animal fat, dairy products, eggs, fish or shellfish, meat), and the authors of the study divided the daily consumption per 1,000 kcal into quintiles, from the highest to the lowest consumption.
As for the reasons why eating a healthy plant-based diet may help prevent the development of intestinal tumors, Kim said: “We speculate that antioxidants found in foods such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains may help reduce the risk of colorectal cancer by suppressing chronic inflammation, which can lead to cancer.”
“Since men tend to have a higher risk of colorectal cancer than women, we propose that this could help explain why eating higher amounts of healthy plant-based foods was associated with a reduced risk of colorectal cancer in men, but not in women”, concluded the researcher.
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