Dietary Fruits and Vegetables Reduce Colon Cancer Risk

Health-minded individuals arewell aware that a diet high in natural fruits and vegetables equate to vibranthealth and dramatically lowered risk of many chronic diseases. The result of anew studypublished in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association provides details on how specific fruit andvegetable consumption lowers the incidence of many types of colon cancer, thethird most prevalent form of the disease.

Foods such as apples, broccoli and cauliflower each lower the risk of cancerinitiation in different parts of the colon while high sugar, fiber-void fruitjuices are shown to increase risk of the illness. Nutrition scientists fromAustralia provide important documentation to confirm the importance of eating acolorful selection of fruits and vegetables to lower colon cancer risk.

Diet Packed With Vegetables and Fruits Shown to Lower Multiple ColonCancer Risk Factors

Nutrition researchers havedesigned studies to examine the effect of healthy diet on colon cancer risk inthe past, but the protective effect has been debatable as they do not providespecific results for different foods on the key regions or subsites of thecolon. Professor Lin Fritschi, PhD, head of the Epidemiology Group at theWestern Australian Institute for Medical Research and her research team set outto investigatethe link between fruit and vegetables and three cancers in different parts ofthe bowel: proximal colon cancer, distal colon cancer and rectal cancer.

The controlled study included 918participants with a confirmed colon cancer diagnosis and compared them with1021 individuals with no history of the digestive disease. All participantscompleted extensive nutritional and demographic questionnaires to account forpotential conflicts such as socioeconomic status. Analysis of the data showedthat specific fruit and vegetables from similar varietal families affect riskfor colon cancer in different portions of the digestive tract.

Broccoli, Cabbage and Sprouts Lower Most Common Type of Colon Cancer

With respect to different fruitand vegetable consumption, the researchersfound a reduced rate of proximal colon cancer was linked to eating brassicaslike broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts. In addition, bothtotal vegetable intake and total vegetable and fruit intake were linked to alower risk of distal colon cancer. And finally a significant reduction indistal colon cancer risk was linked to dark yellow vegetables and apples.

There should be no doubt thatnatural fruits and vegetables consumed raw or minimally cooked to retain theactive enzymes is a critical factor in digestive health to dramatically lowerthe risk of colon cancer and other chronic conditions as well. This studyconveys the important nature of eating a wide variety of different coloredfruits and vegetables, high in phytonutrient content to provide a protectiveshield at different colon subsites and throughout the body.

Posted in: Broccoli,Cancer,Diet and Nutrition