What? Fruits and Veggies No Help Against Cancer?

[Guest guest]

[something must be wrong with this...I'll read the full original journal

article and keep an eye out for other people's analysis. Maybe it's

something as simple as people are dying from heart attacks and strokes

from a poor diet before they get a chance to succumb to cancer, or

perhaps the definition of 'fruits and vegetables' includes high insulin

stimulating cancer-feeders like glucose-fructose in fruit drinks]

 

Fruits and Veggies No Help Against Cancer

 

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Consuming a diet that is high in fruits and

vegetables seems to reduce the risk of heart attack and strokes, but not

cancer, according to a report in the Journal of the National Cancer

Institute (news - web sites).

 

Dr. Walter C. Willett, from the Harvard School of Public Health in

Boston, and colleagues investigated the protective effects of such diets

by analyzing data from 71,910 women who participated in the Nurses'

Health study and from 37,725 men who participated in the Health

Professionals' Follow-up Study.

 

All of the subjects were free from major disease when the studies began

in the mid-1980s and they were followed through 1998. Food frequency

questionnaires were administered on a regular basis to assess diet.

 

During follow-up, 9329 cases of heart attack, stroke, cancer, or death

occurred among women and 4957 occurred among men.

 

Compared with no fruit or vegetable intake, consuming five or more

servings per day reduced the risk of heart attack and stroke by 12

percent, the researchers note. In contrast, no effect on cancer risk was

seen.

 

Further analysis revealed that consumption of green leafy vegetables

provided the greatest reduction in heart attack and stroke risk.

Consuming just one serving per day decreased the risk by 11 percent.

 

" Our results provide further evidence that high intake of fruits and

vegetables is associated with a modest reduction in major chronic

disease risk and support the recommendation of consuming five or more

servings of fruits and vegetables daily, " the authors state.

 

SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, November 3, 2004.