London, Dec 1 (IANS) Fruit and vegetables do little or nothing to protect us against breast, prostate, bowel, lung and other tumours, says a new study.
Instead, the cancer-conscious would be better off keeping slim, stopping smoking and cutting back on alcohol, the researcher behind the large-scale study said.
Professor Tim Key of the Oxford University came up with the controversial conclusion after reviewing more than a dozen previous studies, involving more than 100,000 people around the world, reports the British Journal of Cancer.
For breast and prostate cancer – two of Britain’s biggest killers – he found ‘little or no association’ between eating fruit and vegetables and the risk of disease, reports the Daily Mail.
For lung cancer, the link is ‘weak and inconsistent’ and may simply be due to the figures being clouded by the toxic effects of smoking, according to the study.
Mouth and throat cancers and stomach and bowel cancers are also unlikely to be kept at bay, said the professor.
The idea that eating our greens protects against cancer became popular in the mid-1970s and was backed up by various research over the following two decades.
