Study: High-Fiber Diet May Cut Colon Cancer Risk by 40 Percent

A major European study seems certain to revive the debate over the benefits of a high-fiber diet by finding that a high-fiber diet appears to lower the risk of colon cancer by as much as 40 percent.

Researchers looked at more than 500,000 people from nine European countries, who had the widest range of fiber intake of any study thus far, in the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer (EPIC).

Questionnaires placed the participants into 5 categories according to how much fiber they ate. After 1 percent at the top and bottom of the categories were eliminated to avoid using extremes, there were 80,000 people in each remaining category.

The group who ate the least amount of fiber had 176 cases of colon cancer and the group who ate the most had 124 cases.

"These findings are extremely important because of the sheer scope of the EPIC study," said Professor Gordon McVie, director general of the United Kingdom's Cancer Research Campaign. "They put fiber firmly back on the menu as an important part of a healthy diet, and vindicate our defense of fiber, when others were saying its benefits were at best limited, and at worst, inconclusive.

" We should all now aim to include wholegrain bread and cereals as well as the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables in our daily diet," McVie added.

Other sources: EPIC, Cambridge University, BBC