Study associates early dinner with lower risk of breast and prostate cancer

Barcelona, ​​Spain

Eating at an early hour or leaving an interval of at least two hours before going to bed is associated in both cases with a lower risk from ] breast and prostate cancers according to a study by the Institute of Global Health of Barcelona (ISGlobal).

According to the work, published by the magazine "International Journal of Cancer", people who dine before 9:00 pm or wait at least two hours before bedtime, they have about 20% less risk of these cancers as those who make the nocturnal meal after 22:00 o'clock or those who go to bed immediately after dinner, respectively.

Manolis Kogevinas, a researcher at ISGlobal, pointed out that, until now, studies on people on diet and cancer have focused on eating habits, analyzing by example if the person they eat red meat, fruits or vegetables, or establish relationships with the amount of food and obesity.

However, no attention has been given to other factors surrounding a daily act like eating: ingestion hours and activities that are conducted before and after, according to Kogevinas.

"Recent evidence in experimental studies indicates that the timing of eating is important and shows that doing so at late hours affects health," said the researcher.

The purpose of this study was to assess whether meal and sleep schedules can be linked to the risk of breast and prostate cancer, two of the most common cancers in the world and the most related to night work and circadian disturbance or alteration of the body clock.

As part of the MCC-Spain project, co-funded by the Biomedical Research Consortium of the Epidemiology and Health Network. Public (CIBERESP), the researchers evaluated data on 621 cases of prostate cancer and 1,205 breasts and 872 men and 1321 randomly selected women in primary health centers from different parts of Spain.

The analysis was based on data collected from interviews on food, sleep and chronotype schedules and a questionnaire on dietary habits and adherence to cancer prevention recommendations.

"Our study concludes that diurnal dietary habits are associated with less cancer," summarizes Kogevinas, first author of the publication

For Kogevinas, these results "underline the importance of taking into account the circadian rhythm in addition, according to the researcher, In the case of confirmation of these findings, "they will have implications in the recommendations on cancer prevention, which currently do not take into account meals ".