Cancer And What We Eat: We’re Getting Carried Away, Say Researchers

Carl Lowe | Jan 07, 2013 | Comments 0

Despite the fact that so many studies purport to show that a particular food either increases your chances of cancer or saves you from the disease, researchers at Stanford say we need to take these claims with a grain of… something non-carcinogenic.

When the scientists took a list of 50 foods and analyzedresearch during the past four decades that examined their relationship to cancer, they found a wide range of claims that were based on unreliable evidence.

“We have seen a very large number of studies, just too many studies, suggesting that they had identified associations with specific food ingredients with cancer risk,” researcher John Ioannidis told Reuters. “People get scared or they think that they should change their lives and make big decisions, and then things get refuted very quickly,”

So the next time a study claims that an individual food makes a big difference in cancer risk, remember that an overall diet filled with fruits and vegetables (And don’t smoke!) may be the most important dietary factor that influences your longevity.