Diet-Wide Prospective Study on Diet and Colorectal Cancer

A UK prospective study on diet and colorectal cancer found a marked positive association for alcohol, and a strong inverse association for calcium. The study examined associations of 97 dietary factors with colorectal cancer risk in 542,778 participants with 12,251 incident cases over 16.6 years, and conducted a targeted genetic analysis in other cohorts. Alcohol (relative risk per 20 g/day=1.15) and calcium (per 300 mg/day=0.83) intakes had the strongest associations, followed by six dairy-related factors associated with calcium. There was also a positive association with red and processed meat intake. The weaker inverse associations with breakfast cereal, fruit, wholegrains, carbohydrates, fiber, total sugars, folate, and vitamin C may have been influenced by residual confounding by lifestyle and/or (except for fruit and wholegrains) by other dietary factors. Genetically predicted milk consumption was inversely associated with risk of colorectal, colon, and rectal cancers. The findings align with previous research and provide compelling evidence that dairy products help protect against colorectal cancer, likely driven by calcium. However, it is possible that the association between dairy milk and colorectal cancer risk might differ in populations where a large majority cannot digest lactose, such as that in China. Source: https://www.nature.com/