HHS HealthBeat (September 19, 2007)

The colon cancer survivor diet

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

For people who’ve had colon cancer, keeping it from coming back may depend in part on what they eat. Researchers say people who mostly eat fish, poultry, fruits, and vegetables are better off than people who eat lots of red meat, fats and refined grains.

People with the red meat, fats and refined grains habit – what’s called the Western diet – were more than three times more likely to have a recurrence.

Researcher Jeffrey Meyerhardt of Harvard-affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute:

``It’s not really increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables, but really trying to reduce the amount of red meat intake, and fatty foods, and sugary, desserty foods, that seems to be protective.’’ (11 seconds)

The study in the Journal of the American Medical Association was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: September, 19 2007