One-quarter less cancer in bio-nutrition

People who consume mainly organic vegetables, dairy products, cereals and meat have four times less risk of cancer. This is due to research that now takes nearly five years to nearly 69,000 people in France. The findings were published Monday in the scientific journal JAMA Internal Medicine .

Researchers believe that organic foods can reduce the risk of cancer because they contain fewer pesticides than non-organic foods. This has been shown in other short term research by measuring pesticide residues in the urine.

The French study is the second study on organic foods and cancer among a large group of consumers. In the British Million Women study, 21% fewer non-Hodgkin's cancer-associated lymphomas were discovered among organic consumers in 2014, but the overall risk of cancer had not changed. The French looked in much more detail at eating organic foods.

Nevertheless, French researchers are afraid of obstinate conclusions. "Our results indicate that organic foods are associated with a lower risk of cancer," they write. And: additional research with more accurate consumption data is needed. At the same time, "promoting organic foods in the general population could be a promising strategy against cancer".

Nothing to prove

Three experts in nutrition and oncology at Boston's Harvard School of Public Health do not agree at all. In a commentary published simultaneously by JAMA Internal Medicine they write that nothing has yet been proven regarding cancer and organic foods. But there is convincing evidence that the risk of cancer can be reduced with sufficient physical exercise, avoiding fattening, eating little sausage and red meat, avoiding added sugars and consuming more grain-based products. complete, of fruits and vegetables. These items and measures are available and inexpensive, while organic foods are expensive and not available to everyone, they write. People may eat less fruits and vegetables, but they will be organic. Commentators are wrong: "Concerns about the dangers of pesticides should not discourage the consumption of fruits and vegetables". So, this French research is immediately controversial.

Another problem is that the study has a brief follow up, whereas cancer usually takes a lot of time. The NutriNet-Santé study (paid with French government money) is an important epidemiological research study on diet and lifestyle, in which we are not only interested in organic foods. Research began in 2009 and the number of participants increased in subsequent years. They were on average 44 years old.

At this age, few people have cancer. After an average of 4.5 years, the cancer was diagnosed in 1,340 people. This represents 1.94% of all participants. In comparison, about 33% of all people have cancer in life. The researchers corrected as well as possible other factors related to the probability of cancer.

French researchers examined the difference in cancer among a quarter of the most important participants and the fourth among those who had at least tasted organic products. This difference was clear and remarkable: 2.18 against 1.59%, a decrease of about a quarter.

To do this, you do not even need to eat very faithfully bio. Who did this got a maximum score of 32 points on a scorecard for organic foods. One-quarter of the people who ate the most organic products had an average score of 19. One-quarter of the people with the lowest organic results scored 0.7.