Nutrition and Disease

Below is an overview of the most important types of cancer that are prevented by an increased consumption of vegetables and fruits:

• Stomach cancer: comparative studies have shown that the consumption of vegetables, fruits and leafy vegetables is closely related to the prevention of stomach cancer, the most common cancer worldwide, for which citrus fruit and allium vegetables (garlic and onion) are consistently shown to be protective.
• Colon cancer: most studies have shown that vegetables in general (raw, green and leafy types) help prevent against colon cancer and increase the transit of digested food through the intestine and decreases the pressure resulting from this food on the walls of the large intestine; this in turn decreased the formation of intestinal pouches (known as diverticulosis) and reduces the risk of colon cancer.
• Esophagus cancer: all scientific studies have shown that the regular consumption green vegetables, citrus fruit and leafy vegetables, such as tomatoes, appear consistently to be protective against esophageal cancer. On the other hand the allium vegetables seem to have no role in the prevention against this type of cancer.
• Lung cancer: this is the most common cause of cancer death in the United States in both men and women. Studies have shown the protective effect of leafy vegetables and tomatoes. They also showed that carrot helps - even in a lesser degree - in preventing this type of cancer. Cigarette smoking is known to be the strongest and most common cause of lung cancer; and smokers are the least consumers of these types of food and that is because of their lack of appetite and their low intake of food. This might be due to the role of smoking in thwarting or slowing the effect of anti-carcinogen factors found in this kind of food.
• Esophagus, oral cavity and pharynx: leafy vegetables, citrus fruits as well as carrots have been shown to have a great protective effect against cancer.
• Colon cancer: cruciferous vegetables, such as cabbage, turnip, radish and mustard are among the most important vegetables that prevent this type of cancer. Also, citrus fruits and carrots play a protective role, and they come second to the cruciferous vegetables.
• Breast cancer: this is the most common cancer among US women and the second greatest cause of cancer death; the data generally show an inverse association for consumption of fruit, green vegetables, and carrots and the contraction of this type of cancer.
• Pancreas cancer: most of the studies that were conducted on patients with pancreatic cancer have shown that vegetables and fruits contribute largely in the prevention against this disease.
• Thyroid and prostate cancer: this type of cancer is considered as an exception among other types of cancer that are associated with the consumption of vegetables and fruits since several studies have been undertaken, yet none has shown a protective association.

The above results reveal that raw and green vegetables are the outstanding categories of plant foods that showed a protective association against the different types of cancer. 85 studies that were observed in this field (194 studies in general) have revealed that they have a direct association in prevention against cancer in the different body organs. The allium vegetables come in second place, carrots in third, cruciferous vegetables fourth and finally fruits, especially citrus fruits.

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