Vegetables and Fruits can’t Protect Smokers from Cancer

Colon cancer among non-smokers can be reduced by eating fruits and vegetables, but in smokers they can increase the chances of colon cancer, found researchers. Scientists from the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) showed that a high intake of fruit and vegetables appeared to reduce the risk among non-smokers but seemed to have the reverse effect on smokers.

According to a recent study, people who eat 600 grammes or more vegetables and fruit a day appear to have a 20 to 25 percent lower chance of developing colon cancer than people who eat 220 grammes or less. But researchers reported: "For smokers, the consumption of vegetables and fruit appears, on the contrary, to increase the chances of colon cancer. Protection against colon cancer through the consumption of vegetables and fruit therefore appears to depend on smoking habits." But this did not mean that smokers should stop eating fruits and vegetables.

The main aim of this study is to show smokers that they have to stop smoking. Researchers questioned 500,000 people in 10 European countries about their eating and smoking habits and studied them for 8.5 years. At the end of the investigation they found that the substances within fruits and vegetables may increase the carcinogenic potential of tobacco smoke. Colon cancer is the second-most common form of the disease in the Netherlands, after breast cancer, with 11,000 new cases diagnosed every year.