Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Meat-rich diet raises cancer risk by 32%
But tea & beer can help bowel health
A DIET rich in red and processed meat can increase bowel cancer risk by a third, research shows.
It is even higher for overweight men – and people who do not drink alcohol or tea, said the study.
Researchers said foods influence inflammation, which plays a role in the development of bowel cancer, the umbrella term for colon and rectal cancer.
Among food linked to inflammation were red and processed meat plus sugary drinks.
Those inversely related to it included leafy green and dark yellow vegetables, plus beer, wine, tea and coffee. The 26-year study, of 121,050 adults, found men on the most proinflammatory diets had a 44% greater chance of getting the cancer than men at the other end of the scale. For women in this scenario it was 22% higher. People who ate the most pro-inflammatory diets were also more overweight. In all, such diets raised the risk by 32%. Fred Tabung, of Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, said: “Risk was even higher among overweight men... and [people] not consuming alcohol.” Gluten-free foods had more sugar, fat and salt than counterparts, said a University of Hertfordshire study. TWO swimmers trapped in rough seas cling to a life-saving inflatable dropped by a drone – in the first rescue using the technology.
Lifeguards had been preparing for a training session on using drones to pull people to safety when the men were spotted in trouble in a 10ft swell at Lennox Head, south of Brisbane, Australia.
The rescue took 70 seconds and the men were brought to the shore unharmed.