The big campaign to eat 5 fruits and veg a day was launched in 2003. Statistics showed that vegetarians developed less types of cancer than meat eaters and so the big bid began.
It has now been discovered that vegetarians, although less susceptible to cancers, are at no lesser risk than meat eaters from developing bowel cancer.
We’ve all seen things in the media; don’t eat pork, red meats are the worse. In fact I don’t think anyone is too sure what we can and can’t eat for the best and although it has been suggested that red meats are worse for causing bowel cancer, I must question this due to the fact that vegetarians are at the same risk from cancer than the rest of us.
I think the only thing experts are entirely sure on are the simples – obesity increases your health risks as does consuming large amounts of alcohol, I think anything else at the moment is a bit of a continuing grey area.
Tom Sanders, professor of Professor of Nutrition & Dietetics at King’s College, London reported to BBC news that even the fruits and vegetables do not contain enough protective benefits against serious disease as originally thought.
Although it has been proven that chemicals in certain fruit and veg can help protect against certain diseases (for example broccoli’s chemicals help protect against tumours of the bowel, lung and skin), it is not thought that we consume enough as a population to protect ourselves.
Tom Sanders has explained that experts hope to have developed a far better understanding of the matter over the next ten years, until then, don’t count on the broccoli saving your life!
