Probiotics Part in a Colon Cancer Diet

One of the major causes of death in most parts of the developed world is colon cancer. Diet has been proven, at least in animal studies, to play an important role in this disease. Many researchers suspect that the results of those studies will prove just as correct in man. This is hardly surprising. Our modern diet and the excesses we indulge in, play a huge role in the gastrointestinal cancers.

• Limit the amount of red meat you eat. Almost all of the research indicates that eating too much red meat increases the risk of colon cancer. A large group provided information on their meat intake back in 1982. They were studied over the next twenty years to assess the risks associated with the long-term eating of meat. The findings: "that prolonged high consumption of red and processed meat may increase the risk of cancer in the distal portion of the large intestine."¹ That same study indicated that the long-term consumption of fish and poultry was inversely associated with the risk of both proximal and distal colon cancer.

• Limit the amount of animal fat you eat. Reduce your total fat content. Choose oils that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids such as fish and flax seed. Choose monounsaturated oils such as olive oil.

• Increase the amount of fruit and vegetable you eat. When it comes to fruit and vegetables, color is what you should be looking for. Make that dinner plate or salad bowl just as bright and colorful as you can. Garish is good when it come to food!

Make it a rule that at every meal you have lots of red and green on your plate. Throw in any other color that takes your fancy but the red vegetables and the green vegetables are what will give you good colon health.

Divide your plate into four. Your meat should cover only one quarter of the plate, the carb portion (potatoes, rice, pasta) should cover another quarter, and then vegetables or salad should cover the remaining two quarters. What so often happens is that we end up with a plate of meat and carbs with a token green leaf for decoration.

I know that I'm not saying anything you haven't heard and read a hundred times before. That's what makes it so complex. We do already know what we need to eat - it's just that our modern tastebuds have got so used to the meat and fats, the fast foods and the corner pastry shop, that healthy food is often seen as in some way depriving ourselves.

Think back to our days as hunter/gathers to get on to the right track.

Now you may be thinking - ahh, hunters -that means meat, surely. You'd be right, but ask yourself this - was it a pre-stuffed, hygienically wrapped chicken, bred to put on weight at exactly so many grams per day? You know it wasn't. It was a lean turkey without an ounce of surplus fat and we'd spent half the day running it down! We deserved that stringy old bird!

My husband goes deer hunting and I can promise you that the venison meat we eat from those animals is NOTHING like the meat I buy at the supermarket or butchers. It's different even from sheep that we raise ourselves. It is very, very lean. It is, I believe, how meat would have been back in our hunter/gather days.

For years, we've been told so often to eat lots of fibre that I think everyone is convinced it is necessary for bowel health. However, the latest research has shown that it is not. There were a number of inconclusive studies so yet another was done to try and clarify things. They concluded that total dietary fibre was not associated with colorectal cancer risk, whereas whole-grain consumption was associated with a modest reduced risk.²

But where do probiotics fit into this colon cancer diet, you ask?

Firstly, be aware that probiotics are not some miracle cure for the gastrointestinal cancers.

To quote one of the experts in this field "there is no direct experimental evidence for cancer suppression in humans as a result of the consumption of probiotic cultures in fermented or unfermented dairy products, but there is wealth of indirect evidence based largely on laboratory studies." (emphasis is mine)³

It seems to me that if we're serious about preventing colon cancer then we should take this evidence on board. It is believed that up to 75% of the cases of colon cancer are associated with diet.³

Keep in mind that much of this evidence is from animal studies and that the composition and metabolic activities of the gut microflora of animals is different from ours.⁴

• Certain strains of LAB (lactic acid bacteria) have been found to prevent putative preneoplastic lesions or tumours induced by carcinogens.⁵ Lactic acid bacteria? Think yogurt and any of the fermented dairy foods. Think villi. Think probiotic cheese. Think sauerkraut.

• Probiotic treatment with Bifidobacterium sp. Bio showed a reduction of aberrant crypts (precursor lesions) in the gut of rats.⁶

• There is an inverse relationship between consumption of yogurt and incidence of colorectal cancer.³

1. Chao A, Thun MJ, Connell CJ, McCullough ML,Jacobs EJ, Flanders WD, Rodriquez C, Sinha R, Calle EE. Meat consumption and risk of colorectal cancer. Journal of the American Medical Association 2005 Jan 12:293(2):172-82

2. Schatzkin A, Mouw T, Park Y, Subar AF, Kipnis V, Hollenbeck A, Leitzmann MF, Thompson FE. Dietary fiber and whole-grain consumption in relation to colorectal cancer in the NIH-AARP Diet and Helath Study. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Vol 85 No 5 1353-1360 May 2007

3. Rafter J. Probiotics and Colon Cancer. Best Practice & Research Clinical Gastroenterolgy Vol 17, issue 5 October 20003 pp 849-859

4. Hirayama K, Itoh K, Takahashi E, Mitsuoka T. Comparison of composition of faecal microbiota and metabolism of faecal bacteria among 'human-flora-associated' mice inoculated with faeces from six different human donors. Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease 8 1995 pp 199-211

5. Goldin BR, Gualtiera LJ, Moore RP. The effect of Lactobacillus GG on the initiation and promotion of DMH-induced intestinal tumours in the rat. Nutrition in Cancer 25 1996 pp 197-204

6. Abdelali H, Cassand P, Soussotte V, et al. Effect of dairy products on initiation of precursor lesions of colon cancer in rats. Nutr Cancer 1995:24 pp121-132

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