Diet high in organic food may help reduce cancer risks, French study shows
Research on nearly 70,000 French adults found that those who ate the most organic food were less likely to develop certain forms of cancer than those who ate the least
To reduce your risk of cancer, you know you should quit smoking, exercise regularly, wear sunscreen, and take advantage of screening tests. New research suggests another item might be added to this list: Choose organic foods over conventional ones.
A study of nearly 70,000 French adults who were tracked for an average of 4.5 years found that those who ate the most organic foods were less likely to develop certain kinds of cancer than the people who ate the least.
Because of the way the study was conducted, it is impossible to say that the organic foods people ate were the reason why they had fewer cases of cancer. But the results are significant enough to warrant follow-up studies, the researchers wrote.
“Further research is required to identify which specific factors are responsible for potential protective effects of organic food consumption on cancer risk,” they wrote in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
The researchers have an idea about what factors those may be: pesticides. At least three of them – glyphosate, malathion and diazinon – probably cause cancer, and others may be carcinogenic as well, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer. “Organic products are less likely to contain pesticide residues than conventional foods,” they wrote.
