Mixed Nuts with Mixed Results

This blog post is by Timothy Cannon, MD. Dr. Cannon and other members of the Inova Dwight and Martha Schar Cancer Institute will be blogging on current topics in cancer, research and other developments of note. 

Many people ask me how they can manipulate their diet to reduce the risk of cancer. This is an incredibly difficult topic to study, as researchers have struggled to isolate any single type of food choice as a single variable in large studies. We feel quite certain that weight control and exercise decrease your risk significantly. A diet high in fiber decreases and a diet high in processed foods increases one’s risk of gastrointestinal cancer.

This article explores the association between nuts and cancer. These authors looked at 30,000 patients in 30 studies, and found a slightly lower risk in those with high nut consumption. The problem with a study like this is that people who eat nuts may also make other healthy choices that influence their risk. Additionally, this is only an analysis of studies that were published. It is possible that other researchers have done studies that did not produce interesting results, and the data was left unpublished. However, I will take this data into consideration when I do my weekly shopping, and consider adding nuts (non salted), to my cart.