Colorectal Cancer Risk Lowers With a Healthy Plant-based Diet

A plant-based diet low in unhealthy plant foods, such as refined grains, fruit juices, and added sugars, and high in healthy plant foods, like whole grains, vegetables, and legumes, is linked to a lower risk of colorectal cancer in men.

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What is Colorectal Cancer

Jihye Kim, the corresponding author, said, “Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide. The risk of developing colorectal cancer over a lifetime is one in 23 for men and one in 25 for women. Although previous research has suggested that plant-based diets may play a role in preventing colorectal cancer, the impact of plant foods’ nutritional quality on this association has been unclear. Our findings suggest that eating a healthy plant-based diet is associated with a reduced risk of colorectal cancer.”

Researchers from Kyung Hee University in South Korea discovered that among 79,952 American men, those who consumed the most healthful plant-based meals on a daily average had a 22% lower risk of colorectal cancer than those who consumed the least. The nutritional value of plant-based diets and the risk of colorectal cancer, however, were not shown to be significantly correlated by the authors in a cohort of 93,475 American women.

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Plant-based Foods Lower the Risk of Colorectal Cancer

Jihye Kim said, “We speculate that the antioxidants found in foods such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains could contribute to lowering colorectal cancer risk by suppressing chronic inflammation, which can lead to cancer. As men tend to have a higher risk of colorectal cancer than women, we propose that this could help explain why eating more healthy plant-based foods was associated with reduced colorectal cancer risk in men but not women.”

The association between colorectal cancer risk in men and the nutritional value of plant-based diets varied according to race and ethnicity. Among Japanese American men, those who consumed the most nutritious plant foods daily had a 20% decreased chance of developing colorectal cancer than those who consumed the least. White men who consumed the most nutritious plant foods had a 24% decreased chance of developing colorectal cancer than those who consumed the least. African American, Latino, and Native Hawaiian men did not have an increased risk of colorectal cancer.

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Colorectal Cancer Risk and Ethenicity

Jihye Kim said, “We suggest that the association between plant-based diets and colorectal cancer risk may have been strongest in Japanese American and white men due to differences in other colorectal cancer risk factors between racial and ethnic groups. However, further research is needed to confirm this.”

Scientists analyzed data from adults enrolled in the Multiethnic Cohort Study between 1993 and 1996 in Hawaii and Los Angeles, USA, to assess the association between plant-based diets and colorectal cancer risk. At the start of the study period, male participants had an average age of 60 and female participants had an average age of 59. Of the male participants, 24,138 (30.2%) were Japanese Americans, followed by 20,663 (25.8%), 19,198 (24.0%) Latinos, 10,381 (13.0%) African Americans, and 5,572 (7.0%) Native Hawaiians.

Participants provided information about their typical dietary intake for the previous year. The authors determined whether, in comparison to other participants, their diets were high in plant-based foods they categorized as healthy- such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes- or unhealthy- such as refined grains, fruit juices, and added sugars. The incidence of new colorectal cancer cases up through 2017 was then determined using information from cancer registries. Age, family history of colorectal cancer, BMI, smoking history, degree of physical activity, alcohol consumption, multivitamin use and therapy, and daily caloric intake were all taken into account by the authors. They also accounted for the use of hormone replacement medication among female subjects. During the research period, colorectal cancer struck 4,976 people (2.9%).

The observational design, say the researchers, precludes drawing any firm conclusions on a connection between the consumption of plant-based foods and the risk of developing colorectal cancer. Additionally, they neglected to include in their analysis the potential protective effects of foods like fish and dairy in lowering the risk of colon cancer. The diets were documented only at the start of the study. Therefore, they may not be an accurate representation of their lifelong diets.

Future studies should investigate the genetic and environmental factors that might affect how dietary intake of plant-based foods and colorectal cancer risk varies by racial and ethnic groups.

Source-Medindia