The association between diet and cancer is fairly well established in the nutritional literature. Extensive research over the last 50 years has demonstrated that particular foods and particular food components may have specific anti-cancer effects. More recently, perhaps in the last 10 years, a shift has occurred such that researchers have started to investigate the effects of whole diets. From this research it has been demonstrated that particular diets are protective of cancer. The typical Western diet has been shown to increase the risk of cancer and total mortality, and this relates to the low quality foods that it contains. In contrast a number of diets have been found to protect from cancer, including the Mediterranean diet. The foods in these diets have been investigated and from this information anti-cancer diets have been devised. Recommendations from this research is now reaching the mainstream. Dietary recommendations for protection from cancer are now available from a number of governments and organisations.
The American Cancer Society is one such organisation that has presented guidelines of dietary changes that are suggested to prevent cancer. Researchers have investigated these recommendations to determine the outcome of adherence to the dietary recommendations. For example, one study used a prospective design to analyse the level of adherence to the dietary guidelines and then estimated the association with mortality observed in the population of nearly 500,000 individuals1. The results of the study showed that adherence to the American Cancer Society guidelines was associated with a significant reduction in the risk of cancer in both men and women. Of the 25 specific types of cancer identified, 14 of them showed significant reductions in risk with increasing adherence to the American Cancer Society dietary guidelines. Adherence to the diet was also associated with a reduced risk of cancer mortality. High quality diets may therefore protect from cancer in otherwise healthy men and women.
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