A good diet may help you get a healthier bod, but could it also save you from dying from cancer?
A new study from Oxford University alleges this in the case, now published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
“Interestingly, they found that it was not the individual components that affected mortality, but an overall healthy diet,” says Dr. Elisa V. Bandera, an associate professor of epidemiology at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey. “The index gives more points for eating good foods, such as vegetables and whole grains, and fewer points for eating non-recommended foods, such as added sugars, fatty foods and refined grains. Such a diet has also been linked to reduced risk of other chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease which may complicate ovarian cancer treatment and increase mortality.”
The findings, which were first reported earlier this week, reveal that women whose diets ranked high on the Healthy Eating Index were less likely to die from a specific type of cancer called ovarian cancer. Those who did not eat a diet that met these standards were more likely to die from the disease, however.
Researchers initially made their findings after reviewing 636 cases of ovarian cancer reported between 1993 and 1998, of which 90 percent were considered “invasive.”
The women who had received these diagnoses filled out dietary and exercise questionnaires around a year before their cancer diagnosis as part of the Women’s Health Initiative Study. To see how their diets affected their risk of dying from the disease, they first split the women into three groups based on how their diets ranked on the Healthy Eating Index, from unhealthiest to healthiest. Generally, the index ranked diets higher if they included “good” foods, such as vegetables and whole grains.
Not surprisingly, they found that those who ate the healthiest diets faced the lowest mortality risk after an ovarian cancer diagnosis.
“A healthy diet before diagnosis may indicate a stronger immune system and, indirectly, the capacity to respond favorably to cancer therapy,” says Cynthia A. Thomson, lead author of the study and a researcher from the University of Arizona at Tucson. “It also may reflect our capacity to sustain healthy eating after diagnosis, which in turn could support better health in a broader sense.”
What These Results Mean For You
While this study doesn’t show that eating a healthy diet can prevent cancer, it proves the next best thing: By eating a healthy diet you have a better chance of surviving it. To stay healthy, experts recommend eating a diet designed to rank high in the Healthy Eating index, such as eating more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Of course, abstaining from “bad” foods, such as processed or sugary foods, can also help.
Readers: How healthy is your diet?
Sources:
Diet May Influence Ovarian Cancer Survival – FoxNews.com
Good Diet Before Diagnosis is Linked With Lower Mortality – ScienceDaily.com
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