Do you want to reduce the risk of cancer? Go to the organic diet

Rates of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and bad cancer were lower among those who avoided conventional foods more often, according to researchers at the Center for Research in Epidemiology and Statistics in Paris, who examined data from nearly 70 000 French adults.

The risk reduction may be due to the fact that consumers of organic products are not exposed to chemical pesticides and drugs commonly used to treat ordinary fruits, vegetables, meat and fish, they suggested.

"Due to their lower exposure to pesticide residues, it can be hypothesized that higher organic food consumers are less likely to develop cancer," said Julia Baudry, the # 39, principal author. "If the findings are confirmed, promoting the consumption of organic foods in the general population could be a promising prevention strategy against cancer." But Dr. Baudry admitted that such a diet did not seem to have any effect on the risk of getting cancer from the intestine or the prostate.

The discovery – published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine – is part of a growing concern about the health risks of pesticides.

In August, the American biker DeWayne Johnson was awarded $ 250 million after a jury had discovered that his terminal cancer was probably due to the frequent use of the Roundup weed killer.

New investigators followed 68,946 participants from 2009 to 2016, asking them to report if they had cancer. After taking into account other known causes of cancer, they found that those who ate organic products were 25% less likely to contract the disease.