This is confirmed by a large British survey of nearly 500,000 people followed for a decade. One in three cancers could be avoided with healthy life silos
If you eat meat only five times a week or less, you are less likely to get cancer. Confirmation comes from a large British study that analyzed data from almost 500 thousand peopleconcluding once again that nutrition can play a crucial role in the prevention of different types of cancers.
One in three cancers could be avoided
The alarm was raised in 2015, when the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of Lyon, the highest authority in the field of study of carcinogens which is part of the World Health Organization (WHO), had inserted the meat red and processed as well as sausages among the substances that can cause cancer in humans. Experts have always called for moderation, also stressing the importance of cooking methods because drying, grilling, frying or smoking any food can lead to the formation of chemical agents which are themselves carcinogenic. Over a third of cancers would not develop in the face of correct lifestyles – he recalls Saverio Cinieri, president of the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (Aiom) -. Not smoking (or quitting with concrete benefits at any age), exercising regularly, eating a balanced diet and not having extra pounds are simple rules, which have tangible consequences for keeping away the danger of cancer in healthy people and the danger of relapses in those who have already fallen ill.
The new investigation
In their new research, published in recent days in the magazine BMC Medicine
, the scholars of the University of Oxford took into consideration the data collected on 472,377 British adults (aged between 40 and 70 years) enrolled in the UK Biobank between 2006 and 2010 who were asked the frequency in the consumption of meat and fish. 52% of the people involved said they ate meat more than 5 times a week, 2% that they ate fish but not meat, 2% that they were vegan or vegetarian. The researchers then cross-referenced this information with the cancer diagnoses collected in the last decade, which totaled 54,961, or 12% of the participants. The results indicate that, in comparison with those who eat meat more than 5 times a week, the risk of each type of cancer is reduced by 2% for moderate consumers (who put it on the table 5 times or less), 10% for those who eat fish and 14% for vegetarians and vegans. And, in particular, the chances of colorectal cancer drop by 9% among moderate consumers of meat and sausages, by 20% those of prostate cancer among men who eat only fish and by 31% for vegetarians. And in postmenopausal women, a vegetarian diet reduces the risk of breast cancer by 18%.
Healthy lifestyles (not just diet)
In the conclusions, the authors of the research themselves indicate that various factors must be evaluated to be sure of the link between meat consumption and the danger of cancer, because in the onset of a neoplasm, the responsibility has also been amply demonstrated by many scientific studies all over the world. of tobacco, overweight and sedentary lifestyle. There are no miraculous “superfoods” that protect against cancer and no harmful food alone – says Cinieri -: the variables involved are many and each must be taken into consideration before reaching the final judgment. While in the past we tried to investigate which individual foods can bring greater benefits, today the importance of the diet as a whole has been demonstrated. We need balance, at the table and in lifestyles, but one thing is certain: it took 50 years to come to understand that lifestyles, in the first place what we put on the plate, are at the origin of many cancers. And that each of us can do a lot to limit the chances of getting sick.
March 9, 2022 (change March 9, 2022 | 12:08 pm)
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