How Your Plate Can Help Fight GI Cancer

Dishes loaded with nutrients can be a cancer's Kryptonite. Lets dive into what an expert group of researchers found out. GI cancers are some of the scarier types of cancer. There's been a lot of talk about how what we eat affects our chances of getting them. Some researchers thought it was worthy to explore the connection between two popular diets and GI cancer risk. To do this the expert team used data from over 26, 000 people. They studied the link between diet quality and GI cancer risk. The study was conducted over a number of years to find the correlation. Researchers primarily focused on the quality of the participants' diets to see how it affected their chances of getting GI cancers. Participants were asked about what they ate in 24-hour chunks to minimize memory bias. This part is important because of the many factors that can cause bias in a study. The researchers didn't just stop at collecting data. They used special fancy models to figure out the relationship between the diets and cancer risk. The 2020 HEI score and an alternative Mediterranean diet had two things in common. By the way, You can find the measures online, but they just measure the closeness to 2020 standards and mediterranean diet respectively. What is important to note is participants who followed these dietary guidelines more closely had a significant lower risk of developing GI cancers.

On a scale of 1 - 10, those who scored highest on these diets had lower rates of GI cancer. In fact, the higher the adherence to the diet, the lower the possibility of cancer. Isn't that cool? The current diet standards have been made with strong rationale behind them after all. The study suggests that following a high-quality diet could be a big help in preventing and managing GI cancers. This is nothing new, but it is more evidence to back up the evidence of the generic reports that we hear day in and day out; Eating good food really can affect how long we stay healthy. However, more work is needed to fully understand why these diets have an impact and how we could best apply them to prevent these cancers. The study had it's usual limitations but, it also offers some interesting food for thought. Like, how do we ensure someone is sticking to a healthy diet? Also, how do we make healthy food more accessible and affordable? Even though some implications are quite clear, there is still a lot we do not know. For example, how do these diets impact different ethnicities? Did you know the Mediterranean diet has been labeled an official "Green Light Diet"? That makes it even more tempting to follow. But despite a general thesis of how healthy foods are much safer to consume. Keeping in mind all the health benefits of a better diet, changing our eating habits can be hard. This study, however, shows that having a healthier diet could make a huge difference for our well-being. So, next time you're reaching for a snack, consider picking something that's good for you-and maybe even delicious.

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