Global Health Watch: Can fruits and vegetables help prevent cancer? A British researcher weighs in

LONDON -- Health writers in the Guardian and Telegraph homed in on the British Journal of Cancer this week, which published summarized findings of a decade-long research project investigating the value of a wide-ranging fruit and vegetable diet in warding off cancer.

“In the early 1990s, there was a widespread belief that an increase in fruit and vegetable consumption would produce important reductions in cancer rates; it now appears that this view was unduly optimistic,” said professor Timothy Key of the Cancer Epidemiology Unit, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, Oxford University. Read the full story here.

Initial studies in the 1990s claimed that a limited number of case-controlled studies showed that those with a low intake of fruit and vegetables were at greater risk of developing cancer. But later, more specific studies from 1997 to 2007, including research from the American Institute for Cancer Research, concluded that larger intakes of fruit and vegetables offered no greater protection, Key says.

Giving itemized summaries on varying types of cancer and their correlation to diet, Key’s summary said: “Advice in relation to diet and cancer should include the recommendation to consume adequate amounts of fruit and vegetables, but should put more emphasis on the well-established adverse effects of obesity and high alcohol intakes on cancer risk.”