ParfumGigi@aol.com

Meat-heavy diets hiked risk of polyps by 70 percent in study participants

Updated: 7:16 p.m. ET March 21, 2007

People who eat a diet high in fruit and low in meat reduce their risk of developing colon cancer, researchers reported on Wednesday.

Their study supports other research showing that meat can raise the risk of getting cancer, especially colon cancer, and offers details about what other factors in the diet might be important.

The team at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill interviewed 725 people who had just had colonoscopies about their diet, smoking and other habits.

Of these, 203 had learned they had adenomas, polyps that often turn into tumors and are removed during a colonoscopy.

Gregory Austin and colleagues analyzed the answers and found there were three groups — people who ate a lot of fruit but little meat, people who ate a lot of vegetables and a moderate amount of meat, and people who simply ate a lot of meat.

The people who recalled eating large or moderate amounts of meat were 70 percent more likely to have had a polyp than those who said they ate a lot of fruit but little meat.

Writing in the Journal of Nutrition, the researchers said they wanted to know if eating plenty of greens might counteract the bad effects of meat.

"Several studies have found a protective effect of fruit and vegetable consumption, but multiple other studies have found no association between fruit and vegetable consumption and the risk of having or developing a colorectal neoplasm (tumor or pre-tumor)," they wrote.

Colon cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States after lung cancer, with a projected 52,000 deaths in 2007.

"The high meat cluster (345 people) was the largest of the three clusters and represented a more typical American diet," the researchers wrote.

These people ate fewer whole grains than recommended, far fewer fruits and vegetables than they should and more fat and sugar than others.

Just 18 percent of the people who said they ate a lot of fruit but little meat had a polyp, compared to 30 percent of the moderate meat-eaters and 32 percent of people in the high meat-eating group.

About 135,400 new cases of colorectal cancer will be diagnosed in the United States this year and 56,700 patients will die. But early detection can be a lifesaver. Click on a topic to learn more.

Beginning at age 50, the American Cancer Society recommends that both men and women at average risk should have one of the following screening regimens:

Double contrast barium enema: This radiographic procedure uses a material called barium that "lights up" on X-rays. Barium and air are delivered to the colon by means of a tube that is inserted into the rectum. This is solely a diagnostic procedure, done without sedation.

Flexible sigmoidoscopy: A flexible tube with a light and camera on the end (called an endoscope) is inserted into the rectum and lower third of the colon. If identified, polyps can be removed at the same time and biopsied. This procedure is usually done without sedation and lasts about five to 15 minutes. Sigmoidoscopy, which costs $100 to $200, uses a less-sophisticated viewing tube than colonoscopy and cannot probe the colon’s top two-thirds, where growths become more common, dangerous and hard to detect with age.

Colonoscopy: This procedure is similar to the flexible sigmoidoscopy except that the entire colon is visualized. Sedation is used to make patients comfortable. If identified, polyps can be removed at the same time and biopsied. This procedure takes 20 to 45 minutes. Costing at least $1,000, colonoscopy is about 95 percent accurate and is currently only recommended every 10 years, starting around age 60 for people with no family history of colon cancer.