Milk May Lower Colon Cancer Risk

Worried about colon cancer? Drink low-fat milk.

That’s the advice from new research showing that both calcium and Vitamin D, found in milk, seem to lower the risk of colon cancer.

Men at high risk of colon cancer were given 1,250 milligrams of calcium every day for a week. Scientists at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit found that the calcium reduced by about half the activity of enzymes in the colon that promote tumor growth.

At the same time, researchers at the University of California in San Diego discovered that people with high amounts of Vitamin D in their blood were 70% less likely to develop colon cancer than those with low Vitamin-D blood levels. The same researchers previously noted that men who drank a couple of glasses of milk daily over a 20-year period had only one-third the chance of colon cancer as non-milk drinkers.

This means, says Dr. Elizabeth Barrett-Connor, head of the University’s department of community and family medicine, that calcium and Vitamin D may work together against colon cancer.

Thus, she says, it makes sense to drink at least two glasses of milk a day. But make it low-fat. Researchers suspect fat promotes colon cancer.

Sweets are not always forbidden for diabetics, says Dr. Joyce Wise, assistant professor of the University of Illinois at Peoria.

In a five-day test, she gave a group of insulin-dependent (Type I) diabetics two daily snacks of sugary foods, including cookies, brownies, granola bars and ice cream. Contrary to popular expectations, their blood sugar did not go up.

This does not mean diabetics can eat sugar with abandon, but a little may not be harmful, Wise advises.

She cited a British study showing no damaging changes in blood sugar among diabetics who for six weeks ate three tablespoons of sugar at meals instead of an equal amount of complex carbohydrates, such as cereals, breads and pasta. Seven other studies show essentially the same thing, she says.

The American Diabetic Assn. agrees to an extent. It recently raised its allowance of sugar, honey, molasses or other sweeteners per food serving from a half teaspoon to a full teaspoon.

Being allowed some sugar lessens a diabetic’s sense of deprivation, says Wise.

Barley, the Biblical grain, can lower blood cholesterol as well or better than oat bran, according to new research.

At Texas A & M University, Dr. Joanne Lupton studied 78 men and women with high cholesterol (250 to 300). Those who ate one ounce of barley bran every day for a month had an average 8% drop in cholesterol. Their cholesterol stayed down for five weeks after they stopped eating the bran. Lupton says it takes twice that amount of oat bran to get the same effect.

Dr. Rosemary Newman at Montana State University also noted that eating bread, cereal and muffins made with barley flour every day for four weeks depressed cholesterol in volunteers by as much as 15%. The dose: about an ounce and a half of barley fiber daily, equal to three slices of zucchini bread made with barley flour.

Barley was just as effective as oat bran, she says.