Salt (Photograph by the White Chef)
A plant-based diet can lower the risk of colon cancer by nearly a quarter, but only for men, a new study finds.
Even among men, South Korean researchers say the diet’s effect depends on your ethnicity, with white men benefiting more than some other races. Of the nearly 80,000 men in their study, those who ate high amounts of healthy plant foods had a 22% lower risk of colon cancer.
However, the researchers did not identify a significant relationship between the nutritional quality of a plant-based diet and the risk of colon cancer among the nearly 94,000 women in the study.
“Colon cancer is the third most common cancer in the world and the lifetime risk of developing colon cancer is one in 23 for men and one in 25 for women,” says corresponding author Dr. Jihee Kim, professor in the Department of Medical Nutrition at Kyung Hee University, in a press release.
“Although previous studies have indicated that a plant-based diet may play a role in the prevention of colon cancer, the effect of the nutritional quality of plant-based foods on this relationship has not been clear. Our findings suggest that eating a healthy plant-based diet is associated with a reduced risk of colon cancer.”
More in-
“We hypothesize that the antioxidants found in foods such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains may contribute to lowering the risk of colon cancer by suppressing chronic inflammation, which can lead to cancer. Because men tend to have a higher risk of colon cancer than women, we suggest that this may help to explain why eating greater amounts of healthy plant-based foods was associated with a reduced risk of colon cancer in men but not in women,” adds Dr. Kim.
The team also found that this relationship varies by race and ethnicity. Among Japanese American men, the risk of colon cancer was 20% lower for those who ate the highest amount of healthy plant foods.
This type of food also had a positive effect on white men. Those who ate high amounts of healthy plant foods had a 24% lower risk of colon cancer. However, there was no significant difference between men who did and did not eat a healthy plant-based diet among African-American, Latino, or Native Hawaiian men.
“We suggest that the association between a plant-based diet and risk of colon cancer may be strongest among Japanese American and white men due to differences in other risk factors for colon cancer between racial and ethnic groups. However, more research is needed to confirm this,” the professor continues.
A healthy plant-based diet includes eating whole grains, vegetables and legumes. Conversely, unhealthy plant foods include refined grains, fruit juices and products with added sugar.
The team analyzed data from 79,952 men and 93,475 women from Hawaii and Los Angeles, California. On average, the male participants were 60 years old and the participants were 59 at the start of the study. Of all the people involved, 30.2 percent of the men were Japanese American, 25.8 percent were white, 24 percent were Latino, 13 percent were African American, and seven percent were Native Hawaiian.
Each participant reported their usual food and drink intake during the previous year. The researchers then assessed whether their diet was rich in plant foods. Finally, they calculated the incidence of new cases of colon cancer through 2017 using data from the Cancer Registry.
The team considered each participant’s age, family history of colon cancer, BMI, smoking history, physical activity levels, alcohol consumption, multivitamin use and treatment, and daily energy intake. They also considered the use of hormone replacement therapy among women.
Of all participants, 2.9 percent developed colon cancer during the study period. However, due to the observational nature of their study, the researchers urge caution as their results cannot be conclusive. This may be because they did not take into account the positive effects of other foods such as fish and dairy products.
Similarly, since the respondents recorded their diet at the beginning of the study, they may not be representative of their diet throughout their lifetime.
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