Reduce risk of pancreatic cancer by 15 percent with healthy diet: Study - Examiner.com

When it comes to diseases that are life-threatening, cancer ranks high on the list. Now a new study is showing a link between food and the most aggressive form of cancer, reported Reuters on September 13^[1] . Read on to find out how you can significantly lower your risk of this potentially fatal disease by changing your diet^[2] .

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive forms, with only six percent of people still alive within five years after the diagnosis, reported study lead author Hannah Arem of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. However, her study indicates that by improving the quality of your diet^[3] , you can help avoid this fatal disease.

To conduct the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 500,000 Americans over age 50. The group benefiting most from a high quality diet: Men who were overweight.

"It is important to note that our findings are based on overall diet and not individual foods. A combination of many foods contributed to the observed association between greater compliance with the Dietary Guidelines and lower risk of pancreatic cancer," noted Arem.

"Our study showed an association between diet and pancreatic cancer risk," she added. In particular, people who consumed the most low-fat milk, whole grains, legumes, dark green veggies and orange vegetables had the lowest risk for pancreatic cancer. On the list of unhealthy foods that raised the risk: Junk food and red meat^[4] .

However, Dr. Alfred Neugut, an expert in digestive cancers, advised caution about interpreting the results of the study.

"If you go out of your way to have a healthy diet, then you're probably going out of your way to be healthy in other ways," Neugut, a professor of medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York, told Reuters Health.

"It's always safe to say that it's prudent to eat a healthy diet," he said. But, he added, "I would say that diet and cancer is a topic that, despite huge numbers of studies and huge amounts of money invested, has eluded any dramatic findings."

References

1. ^{^} reported Reuters on September 13 (www.reuters.com)


2. ^{^} diet (www.examiner.com)


3. ^{^} improving the quality of your diet (www.examiner.com)


4. ^{^} Junk food and red meat (www.examiner.com)