Swapping high-dairy diet with plant-based one can reduce risk of prostate cancer, says study
Swapping high-dairy foods such as cheese or milk with a plant-based diet, may reduce your risk of developing prostate cancer, suggests a new study.
In 2018, prostate cancer affected over 1.2 million men worldwide and the risk increases with age. Countries with high rates of prostate cancer are Australia, New Zealand, and Northern America. In the US, the lifetime risk of prostate cancer is 11.6 percent. With more than 30,000 deaths annually, the US has the highest incidence and second highest mortality rate of all cancers in men. Several studies have pointed out the prevalence of prostate cancer is higher in Western countries when compared to Asian countries.
This led scientists to examine whether differences in diet contributed to the trend. Earlier studies have shown that consuming mushrooms, which is popular in Asian countries, may lower an individual's risk for prostate cancer.
Besides mushrooms, scientists have also probed dairy products because dairy intake is high in Western countries and low in Asian countries. Previously, scientists have also pointed out that those consuming large amounts of animal-based diet had a greater risk for prostate cancer.
To clearly establish the risk of prostate cancer associated with dairy, plant- and animal-based foods, the team of scientists from Mayo clinic pored over 47 studies published since 2006, comprising more than 1,000,000 total participants.
From these papers, the researchers saw that among the 1,000,000 people, those consuming plant-based diets had a lower risk of prostate cancer and those consuming more dairy products had a higher risk, both of which are in line with the previous estimates. But their findings disagreed with the earlier investigations that linked high animal-based foods, including red and white meat, processed meat and fish, with prostate cancer.
"Our review highlighted a cause for concern with high consumption of dairy products", says John Shin, a Mayo Clinic oncologist and lead author on this study. "The findings also support a growing body of evidence on the potential benefits of plant-based diets."
The study established associations between prostate cancer and food but Shin believes that study needs more investigations. He adds that they still need to figure out the nature and strength of these associations.
The study was published in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.