Tag Archives: cancer

Wine, Mediterranean Diet, and Your Health News for 03/12/2015

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Photo by Flickr user  Frank Kovalchek (http://www.flickr.com/photos/72213316@N00/5366320120)
Photo by Flickr user Frank Kovalchek (http://www.flickr.com/photos/72213316@N00/5366320120)

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Continue reading Wine, Mediterranean Diet, and Your Health News for 03/12/2015

Wine, Mediterranean Diet, and Your Health News for 03/11/2015

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Continue reading Wine, Mediterranean Diet, and Your Health News for 03/11/2015

Processed Meat Consumption Increases Risk of Breast Cancer in Women

As we’ve seen right here on The French Paradox in the past, strong adherence to the Mediterranean diet may reduce the risk of breast cancer in women. On the other hand, studies have shown that increased meat consumption (one hallmark of a Western-style diet)

Photo by Flickr user  whity (https://www.flickr.com/photos/whitefield_d/6685238885)
Photo by Flickr user whity (https://www.flickr.com/photos/whitefield_d/6685238885)

is associated with increased all-cause mortality, diabetes, and certain types of cancer (including pancreatic and colorectal).

What is not exactly known is what the effect of poor adherence to the Mediterranean diet in the form of excess meat intake is on breast cancer risk in women.

A new study published in the journal Meat Science aimed to add a little more clarity to this issue by studying the effect of meat consumption on breast cancer in Greek women.

250 newly-diagnosed women with breast cancer (average age 56+/-12 years) were recruited for this study, as well as 250 age-matched controls without breast cancer.

Face-to-face interviews were conducted to obtain information regarding: socio-demographics, clinical, lifestyle, and dietary habits. For meat consumption habits, data for red, white, processed, and grilled meat were collected. Dietary habits were assigned scores based adherence to the Mediterranean diet using the MedDietScore.

Important Findings:

Continue reading Processed Meat Consumption Increases Risk of Breast Cancer in Women

DNA Damage Correlated With Low Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet in Men with Prostate Cancer: Lack of Control Group Makes Results Questionable

Prostate cancer in men is a world-wide problem and has many risk factors from environmental to genetic and finally to lifestyle. Specifically, some risk factors for prostate cancer include: old age,

Photo by Flickr user  Mario Mancuso (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mario-mancuso/8822345254)
Photo by Flickr user Mario Mancuso (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mario-mancuso/8822345254)

ethnicity, family history/genetics, lifestyle factors, and diet.

Some studies have observed dietary fats may influence prostate cancer risk, particularly related to the Western-style diet and the omega-6 and animals fats are prevalent compared with the so-called “good” fats related to the Mediterranean diet (olive oil fats, omega-3, etc). Specifically, it is dietary fats that have been implicated in DNA damage related to cancer risk.

A new study published in the journal Nutrients aimed to evaluate dietary fat intake through diets like the Mediterranean diet and the Western diet, and compare consumption of these diets to inflammation markers and DNA damage in men with prostate cancer.

20 men with prostate cancer (Gleason scores between 6 and 7) were recruited for this study.

Blood samples were collected at the beginning of the study, as well as 3 months later. Fatty acid profiles and DNA damage was evaluated from blood samples.

Dietary information prior to the beginning of the study was collected via questionnaire.

During the study, all participants were given a strict diet based on the Mediterranean diet, and were provided with all meals throughout the 3 month experiment.

Light to moderate exercise was encouraged, and participants were required to not each or drink anything that was not allowed based on experimental protocol.

Adherence to the experimental Mediterranean-style diet was determined via questionnaire.

Important Findings:

  • DNA damage levels were correlated with dietary fat sources:
    • DNA damage was negatively correlated with adherence to the experimental Mediterranean-style diet, whole blood monounsaturated fatty acids, and oleic acid.
    • DNA damage was positively correlated with consumption of dairy products, red meat, and whole blood omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids.

The results of this study indicate that dietary fats associated with a Western-style diet are correlated with greater DNA damage in men

Photo by Flickr user JD Hancock (https://www.flickr.com/photos/jdhancock/5021666285)
Photo by Flickr user JD Hancock (https://www.flickr.com/photos/jdhancock/5021666285)

with prostate cancer. On the other hand, those men with prostate cancer adhering strictly to a Mediterranean-style diet had lowest levels of DNA damage.

Problems with this study: the sample size was incredibly small. With only 20 participants, the results of this study are only preliminary and would need a much larger sample size to be more confident in the results.

Also, there were NO controls in this study. Basic scientific experimental design dictates that there should always be a control (preferably more than one!), or else the results are virtually meaningless.

While the results of this study are interesting and indicate that the adherence to the Mediterranean diet is correlated with less DNA damage in men with prostate cancer, these results should be taken with a grain of salt due to the omission of a control group.

Source:

Bishop, K.S., Erdich, S., Karunasinghe, N., Han, D.Y., Zhu, S., Jesuthasan, A., and Ferguson, L.R. 2015. An Investigation into the Association between DNA Damage and Dietary Fatty Acid in Men with Prostate Cancer. Nutrients 7: 405-422.

Wine, Mediterranean Diet, and Your Health News for 02/10/2015

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Photo by Flickr user  Remko van Dokkum (http://www.flickr.com/photos/remkovandokkum/3601676710)
Photo by Flickr user Remko van Dokkum (http://www.flickr.com/photos/remkovandokkum/3601676710)

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