This week, there have been many news reports saying “Five-a-day has little impact on cancer” and “Five fruit and veg a day won’t keep cancer away”. This is a result of new research, published by in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, you can read the study in all it’s glory here “Fruit and vegetable intake and overall cancer risk in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)”.
For years charities such as Cancer Research UK and the World Cancer Research Fund have been telling us that between a quarter and a third of cancer could be prevented by changes to our diet and lifestyle. Obviously both charities have something to say on the EPIC report and both are worth a read, you can read the Cancer Research response here and the WCRF on here. However, the best blog post I’ve read on this subject is on Respectful Insolenence and is written by an American breast cancer surgeon and research scientist called “Eat your fruit and veggies?”
So what did the study show? Eating fruit and veg does decrease your risk of cancer, slightly. The more fruit and veg you eat the more this risk is decreased. A 3% decrease in risk would prevent 7,000 deaths a year in the UK.
Do Fruit and Veg Decrease your risk of Cancer? Data from EPIC Trial
What do I think? I think it’s important not to confuse the effects of eating fruit and veg on cancer risk with the effect of obesity on cancer risk. Being obese tends to increase your risk of cancer. People who eat more fruit and veg are less likely to be obese, so even if the protective effect of the fruit and veg is not as great as we’d like, it’s better to eat a healthy diet and maintain a healthy weight, than not to bother at all.
| If you are obese you have an INCREASED risk of | Fruit and veg can REDUCE the risk of |
| Breast cancer (after the menopause) | Oesophageal (Food pipe) cancer |
| Bowel cancer | Mouth cancer |
| Womb cancer | Stomach cancer |
| Oesophageal cancer | Bowel cancer |
| Pancreatic cancer | Lung cancer |
| Kidney cancer | |
| Gallbladder cancer |
Data from Cancer Research UK Fruit, vegetables and cancer – why it’s still worth getting your five a day
Basically this research hasn’t changed my opinion, as I wrote last year in a post called “Scientists keep changing their minds…”, I don’t expect that wearing a seat belt will keep me save from all road accidents but I still wear a seat belt every time I’m in a car. Likewise, a healthy diet is not going to protect me from developing all types of cancer, but it’s a good place to start.
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