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  #1   ^
Old Tue, Nov-02-04, 17:40
Dodger's Avatar
Dodger Dodger is offline
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Default Fruits and Veggies No Help Against Cancer

Fruits and Veggies No Help Against Cancer
Tue 2 November, 2004 21:17

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Consuming a diet that is high in fruits and vegetables seems to reduce the risk of heart attack and strokes, but not cancer, according to a report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Walter C. Willett, from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues investigated the protective effects of such diets by analyzing data from 71,910 women who participated in the Nurses' Health study and from 37,725 men who participated in the Health Professionals' Follow-up Study.

All of the subjects were free from major disease when the studies began in the mid-1980s and they were followed through 1998. Food frequency questionnaires were administered on a regular basis to assess diet.

During follow-up, 9329 cases of heart attack, stroke, cancer, or death occurred among women and 4957 occurred among men.

Compared with no fruit or vegetable intake, consuming five or more servings per day reduced the risk of heart attack and stroke by 12 percent, the researchers note. In contrast, no effect on cancer risk was seen.

Further analysis revealed that consumption of green leafy vegetables provided the greatest reduction in heart attack and stroke risk. Consuming just one serving per day decreased the risk by 11 percent.

"Our results provide further evidence that high intake of fruits and vegetables is associated with a modest reduction in major chronic disease risk and support the recommendation of consuming five or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily," the authors state.

SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, November 3, 2004.

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticl...13&section=news
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  #2   ^
Old Tue, Nov-02-04, 22:03
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brobin brobin is offline
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Why do they always lump fruit and veggies together? They state here that most impact was from green leafy veggies (ah, like the ones that Atkins recommends).

Show me the study that shows that eating a pile of oranges and bananas is healthy?

Bruc
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  #3   ^
Old Wed, Nov-03-04, 03:49
ezandreth ezandreth is offline
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the version of this report I saw said that cruciferous veg were better for you: and by an amazing coincidence they happen to be the low-carb ones: broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage...
Zan
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  #4   ^
Old Wed, Nov-03-04, 09:23
tom sawyer tom sawyer is offline
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Hmm, eat five servings and get 12% lower risk. Or eat one serving of spinach, and get 11%. Geez, why even recommend the five servings approach.

Either way, 12% is a pitiful outcome. I suppose these five servings were taken with a healthy dose of carbs though. You know, the good whole grain stuff that veggie eaters are prone to favor. It'll be nice once there have been enough long-term low carbers, to do these statistical studies on. I'm sure we can do much better than 12% on heart disease, don't know about cancers.
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  #5   ^
Old Wed, Nov-03-04, 09:30
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Nancy LC Nancy LC is offline
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Maybe if you eat 5 servings of leafy greens per day you'd have 55% lower heart disease!
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  #6   ^
Old Wed, Nov-03-04, 10:11
tom sawyer tom sawyer is offline
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If it replaced five servings of a combination of carbs and fat, I bet it would.

Lets consider what these stats mean for a minute. They are being quoted in a certain way, for maximum impact. Lets say risk of heart disease is 25%. So a 12% lower risk, would mean your risk is now 22%. I don't think it means 25% - 12% = 13%. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. If it were the latter, I owuld bet they would say "cuts your risk in half". Again, for maximum effect.
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  #7   ^
Old Wed, Nov-03-04, 10:33
K Walt K Walt is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tom sawyer
They are being quoted in a certain way, for maximum impact. Lets say risk of heart disease is 25%. So a 12% lower risk, would mean your risk is now 22%. I don't think it means 25% - 12% = 13%. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. If it were the latter, I owuld bet they would say "cuts your risk in half". Again, for maximum effect.


I'd say you're right.

The effect is very very tiny. The report actually says. . . "Total fruit and vegetable intake was inversely associated with risk of cardiovascular disease but not with overall cancer incidence, with relative risk for an increment of five servings daily of 0.88 (95% CI = 0.81 to 0.95) for cardiovascular disease and 1.00 (95% CI = 0.95 to 1.05) for cancer."

Again, a RR of .88 is TINY. Statisticians wouldn't pay much attention to that. To be definitive, they would need to show something like RR of .50 or .25 -- which would still be hard to interpret.
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  #8   ^
Old Wed, Nov-03-04, 23:27
TBoneMitch TBoneMitch is offline
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If the risk is reduced by 12%, it can mean that your risk goes from 100 chances in a hundred billion to 88 chances in a hundred billion. That's the beauty (for statisticians) of risk ratios (or relative risks): you just drop the denominators, and you can therefore ridiculously inflate trivial results.
If they went by absolute risk differences, as they should, you would get the answer to your question, and you would know that the effect is trivial, and not bother about it, but it wouldn't be nearly as flashy or dramatic as a result!
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  #9   ^
Old Sat, Nov-06-04, 09:01
woodpecker woodpecker is offline
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I wonder what they could prove if they just looked at the green vegetables and cabbage family, then just looked at the fruits. I hope Harvard had the foresight to split the vegetable and fruit groups up and actually record type of veggies consumed. Otherwise, an awfully large study could be going to waste. They may have already jeopardized their credibility by suggesting polyunsaturated oils are great for us, without suggesting which ones. There could be a big difference between vegetable oils and fish/olive oils.
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