According to a major study that investigated dairy consumption and cancer risk in Chinese adults, greater intake of dairy products was associated with higher risks of liver cancer and female breast cance
The first major study to investigate dairy consumption and cancer risk in Chinese adults discovered that higher intake was associated with increased risks of liver cancer and female breast cancer. Overall evidence to date on whether eating dairy products affects the risk of cancer has not been consistent. Studies on Western populations indicate that dairy products may be associated with a lower risk of colorectal cancer and a higher risk of prostate cancer, but have found no clear link for breast or other types of cancer.[1] These results, however, may not be the same for non-Western populations, where amounts and types of dairy consumption and ability to metabolize dairy products are very different
For example, in China there is very little consumption of cheese and butter, and the consumption of milk and yogurt is also far lower than in Western populations. Additionly, most Chinese adults cannot properly metabolize products due to a lack of lactase, a key enzyme for breaking down the milk sugar lactose.[2]\ To establish whether dairy products affect the risk of cancer differently in Chinese people, researchers from Oxford Population Health, Peking University, and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, have today published the results of a new large-scale study in BMC Medicine. This collected data from over 510,000 participants in the China Kadoorie Biobank Study
The participants (59% female, 41% male), who came from ten geographically diverse regions across China and joined the study between 2004 and 2008, had no previous history of cancer. When recruited, each participant (aged 30-79 years) completed a questionnaire about how frequently they consumed different food products, including dairy products. The researchers categorized the participants into three groups: regular dairy consumers (at least once a week), monthly dairy consumers, and people who never or rarely consumed dairy products (non-consumers).
Participants were followed up for an average of around 11 years, and the researchers used data from national cancer and death registries as well as health insurance records to identify new cancer diagnoses. Both fatal and non-fatal events were included. The data analyses took into account a range of other factors that can affect cancer risk, including age, sex, region, family history of cancer, socio-economic status (i.e. education and income), lifestyle factors (i.e. alcohol intake, smoking, physical activity, soy consumption, and fresh fruit intake), body mass index, chronic hepatitis B virus infection (for liver cancer), and female reproductive factors (for breast cancer).
Source: This news is originally published by scitechdaily