Diet is the best way to reduce cancer risk, say boffins
Tuesday November 01 2005
Studies presented yesterday to the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research add to the evidence that changing your diet may be among the most effective ways of prolonging your life.
Up to a third of cancers are thought to be associated with diet. Experts say eating more fruit and vegetables is the second most effective way to reduce the risk of cancer, after not smoking.
PREVENT
Vegetables, fruit, nuts, oily fish and whole grains stand out in the nutritional crowd for their cancer preventing qualities.
In the latest studies, researchers from the University of New Mexico investigated breast cancer among Polish women who emigrate to the US.
The risk is three times higher among Polish women living in America than in their cousins at home, suggesting a strong environmental factor.
Dorothy Rybaczyk-Pathak and colleagues evaluated the diet of Polish immigrants living in the Chicago and Detroit areas. They found that those who ate cabbage three times a week had a reduced risk of breast cancer compared with those who ate less than one serving a week.
CABBAGE
In Poland, women traditionally eat 30lb of cabbage and sauerkraut a year, compared with 10lb a year for American women. Those who ate most cabbage during adolescence had the lowest rates of cancer.
If cabbage is not to your taste, you could try rubbing an extract from it on your skin. Scientists from John Hopkins University in Baltimore found it halved the rate of skin cancer in mice.
Cabbage is a cruciferous vegetable and member of the Brassica family, which includes broccoli, brussels sprouts and cauliflower.
These vegetables contain glucosinolates, which are broken down by chewing or cutting into sulphoraphane which has been shown to have anti-cancer properties.
In another study, researchers found that using garlic to flavour meat could help counteract the carcinogenic substances produced in cooking protein.
- Jeremy Laurance
