High fiber intake may lower possible cancer risk

High fiber intake seems to decrease the risk of hormone dependent and possibly alcohol-related breast and prostate cancer.

Intake of alcoholic beverages is associated with increased circulating concentrations of sex hormones, which in turn may increase hormone-dependent cancer risk (breast, prostate, ovarian, endometrial, and testicular). To examine the relation between the intake of alcoholic beverages and the risk of these hormone-dependent cancers and to investigate whether dietary fiber intake can modulate these associations, a prospective study including 3771 women and 2771 men from France were followed for 12 years. During follow-up, 297 incident hormone-dependent cancer cases, including 158 breast and 123 prostate cancers, were diagnosed. The results showed that the cancer risk was only seen in participants with low fiber consumption but not among their counterparts with higher dietary fiber intake.

Chhim AS, Fassier P, Latino-Martel P, et al. Prospective association between alcohol intake and hormone-dependent cancer risk: modulation by dietary fiber intake. Am J Clin Nutr 2015.

For more information about this article, read the scientific abstract here.