EATING lots of fibre may do little to protect against colon cancer, the latest analysis of evidence has found.
While people who eat the most fibre — in the form of cereals, vegetables and fruit — are slightly less likely to get colon cancer, the association is weak and disappears altogether when other factors are taken into account, according to an international team in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The research undermines one of the greatest of dietary shibboleths, first enunciated by the British physician Denis Burkitt in the 1960s. Working in Africa, he noticed that rates of colon cancer were low, and put it down to the fibre-rich diet of local people.
Ever since, people have been urged to eat their fibre. The latest analysis pools the results of 13 studies of about 750,000 men and women followed for between 6 and 20 years, in which more than 8,000 colon cancers were detected.
At first sight, the results suggest a link. People in the top fifth for the fibre content of their diet were 16 per cent less likely to get colon cancer than those in the lowest fifth. But on further analysis, the link disappears. If other dietary factors such as red meat, milk and alcohol are included, the link between fibre and cancer becomes insignificant.
Well, we have to eat something. Every week another study comes out and the pendulum swings some other way.
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