Green bananas can cut bowel cancer threat

A SLIGHTLY green banana daily can help prevent cancer, a study suggests.

There was a major preventative effect from resistant starch – found in oats, cereals, peas, beans and green bananas.

The study, published in Cancer Prevention Research, looked at 1,000 patients predisposed to a range of cancers. Regular doses of resistant starch, for two years, did not affect bowel cancers but cut it in other parts by more than half. The effect lasted for 10 years.

Participants took resistant starch in a powder form, or aspirin, or a placebo. At first, there was no perceived difference between those who had resistant starch or aspirin and those who had not.

However, the team anticipated a longer-term effect and led a further study, in which there were just five new cases of upper gastrointestinal (GI) cancer among 463 participants who had taken the resistant starch compared with 21 among the 455 on the placebo.

Prof John Mathers, of Newcastle University, said: “Resistant starch reduced a range of cancers by more than 60 per cent. The effect was most obvious in the upper part of the gut. This is important as cancers of the upper GI tract are difficult to diagnose and often are not caught early on. The trial dose is equivalent to eating a daily banana; before they become too ripe and soft.”