These days, more and more people are altering their diets in order to prevent the development of certain cancers. But, can these healthy bites really fight cancer?For years, foods such as cauliflower, broccoli, fish and brussel sprouts have been touted as cancer-fighting giants by a multitude of research organizations. However, further examination into the evidence supporting such a link finds that the association between the two may be weaker than originally thought.
While these foods are altogether regarded as a healthy part of a balanced diet, as they are low in saturated fat and high in vitamins - whether or not they can effectively prevent, or destroy, cancer is another story.
For instance, in studies that claim that a food can prevent a type of cancer (such as high fiber intake preventing colon cancer), researchers rely on the memories of cancer patients in order to determine the amount of their regular fiber intake. Yet for these patients, recalling their diet may have already been influenced by the link (i.e. they disclose that their diet was low in fiber after hearing about the fiber-colon cancer link).
More valid studies, such as the Women's Health Institute's study to determine if a low-fat diet reduced breast cancer risk, in which subjects were asked to follow a low-fat diet as compared with the normal diet of controls, have not been able to definitively verify a diet-cancer link.
Dr. Barnett Kramer, disease prevention coordinator at the National Institutes of Health, says that the media can often overstate circumstantial evidence from cancer studies, and that patients at risk should be wary before accepting any discovery as fact.
"Over time, the messages on diet and cancer have been ratcheted up until they are almost co-equal with the smoking messages ... a lot of the public is completely unaware that the strength of the message is not matched by the strength of the evidence."
However, many believe it is a matter of time and science before the true correlations are discovered.
"My suspicion is that, in time, we'll discover that the role of diet in the risk of cancer is different in different people, based on the genomics of the individual," said William Rice, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of myDNA.com.
"If it is true that the role of diet in cancer risk has significant variance that is related to an individual's gene profile, we should not expect research to produce a clear association between the consumption of a food and cancer risk until the gene profiles are defined," he said.
To learn more visit myDNA's Nutrigenomics Center
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