Skip to main content

Wholegrains and cancer


This is an interesting one - and the whole paper is available.

Intake of wholegrain products and risk of colorectal cancers in the Diet, Cancer and Health cohort study

Take a look through and see what you think, but at first glance it seems that (at least for women) there is no justification to saying that eating whole grains gives a better chance of avoiding gut cancer. Even for men the effect seems limited and there look to be a few confounding variables.

It might just be me or maybe the hype about wholegrains continues to be unjustified.
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
Very nice find Chris. Looking just quickly at the tables, the women have both crude & adjusted IRR's well over 1.0 is many cases. As do the men when you look at some of the higher intakes.

If the authors are going to say that WG intake may be mildly protective against these forms of cancer based on these numbers, they should also be stating that WG intake appears to be a risk factor for causing the same cancers in women. I see they weren't quite brace enough to take that step.
August 25, 2010 at 2:17 PM
Chris said…
thanks for the comment Jamie. There is a lot of interesting stuff in that study. I like that though - whole grains are a risk for cancer
August 25, 2010 at 2:26 PM
Chris said…
Just discussing this with my immunologist girlfriend. She thinks the study is really dodgy - everything is so marginal.
August 25, 2010 at 2:45 PM
SafeNSharp said…
"..at first glance it seems that (at least for women) there is no justification to saying that eating whole grains gives a better chance of avoiding gut cancer."

Unless your are ADM or Cargill. Then you have all the ju$$$tification you need.
August 25, 2010 at 9:17 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dry January

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was taking part in "Dry January".  I didn't make a big song and dance about it, but I decided to go for a calendar month or so with no alcohol.  A few people have asked me about my experience, so here are a few points. Why take a break from drinking? Alcohol is an interesting topic.  As a drug it is widely accepted in society, central to so much of our socialising and leisure.  There seem to be lots of health benefits - so we are told - yet there are also a lot of problems in terms of health, relationships and lifestyle that come from drinking. Over a few years I'd begun to become aware and then concerned that I was drinking too much and too regularly.  I am in a busy and stressful job and sometimes a glass of wine after work to relax is really helpful.  But over time, one glass became two.  Two glasses became ....I might as well finish the bottle.  A habit got established....and was starting to get too e...
7 comments
Read more

So where have I been?

You will have noticed that this blog has been quiet for a while....  There are a few reasons for that, reasons that I thought I'd list here: WORK -  my day job has been incredibly busy and stressful this year. Working 10-14 hour days the last thing on my mind when I got home was putting something on here.  FACEBOOK/TWITTER - I suppose I've been using other channels to do some of what I used to do here. Quick fire posts pointing to interesting studies or news etc tend to get posted to Twitter (@chrishighcock) or to the Facebook Hillfit group http://www.facebook.com/groups/263083947097000/  REASSESSMENT - I've found myself less comfortable with some of the positions I've taken in the past. Sometimes I'm embarrassed by some of the things I've promoted. I'm not Paleo or low carb. I think Tabata and intervals are misunderstood and misapplied. I cannot really claim to be HIT.   I find myselfunable  honestly to post things on here and pretend that I am some sort o...
12 comments
Read more

Taking up space for a brief update

I've a couple of posts in draft that I will get up soon -  an update / reflection on Dry January and some thoughts on the scheduling benefits of short workouts if your life is busy.  Before that though, I am pointing to something else. However, I wanted to highlight something that is coming this weekend that I've been involved in.   Amber Rogers (Gokaleo and author of Taking Up Space ) has been pulling together a bundle of books from various authors with a common theme, one that I've been pushing here recently.   Keep it simple, avoid the hype, be patient, be consistent and flee the gurus.   I've talked before about how we get obsessed with pushing for more and more, when enough is OK.  I've given my view that so much of the health and fitness internet world is more like a gnostic religion than something that will benefit your life. There are other voices out there saying similar things and I'll be pointing to a bundle of books later this week ...
1 comment
Read more