Your body responds to changes in what you eat — for better or worse — much faster than you might think. That’s what researchers discovered during a recent study on the link between diet and colon cancer risk.
The project involved trading the typical diets of two groups: African-Americans, who are at high risk for colon cancer, and rural South Africans, who have a much lower risk for the disease. After two weeks of eating the high-fiber, low-fat and low-animal-protein South African diet, African-Americans in the study saw a significant decrease in inflammation and levels of several biomarkers considered predictive of colon cancer risk. At the same time, the South African participants’ level of risk increased. Shortly after the study was published in Nature Communications, lead investigator Stephen O’Keefe, a nutritional gastroenterologist at the University of Pittsburgh, chatted with Discover’s Gemma Tarlach about the findings.
Discover: How are the biomarkers ...
