Milk ‘cuts bowel cancer risk’ – should I drink more?
Share:
The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, is the largest of its kind and examined the effects of 97 dietary factors on bowel cancer risk on more than 542,000 women over 16 years. Researchers from the University of Oxford discovered that, on average, increasing daily calcium intake by 300mg – roughly equivalent to a large 240ml glass of cow’s milk or a couple of pots of yogurt – resulted in a 17% reduction in bowel cancer risk.
“There is good evidence from previous studies that dairy products lower the risk of bowel cancer, but it wasn’t yet clear if this was driven by calcium,” says Megan Winter, health information manager at Cancer Research UK. “This paper provides strong evidence that calcium – whether it’s in dairy or non-dairy sources – could be linked to reduced bowel cancer risk.
“One possible explanation for how calcium may lower the risk of bowel cancer is that calcium binds to damaging bile acids in the bowel, preventing them from causing damage in the bowel that could lead to cancer. However, there are other theories and we need more research to determine exactly how calcium could be affecting bowel cancer risk.”.
According to the charity, there are around 44,000 cases of bowel cancer every year, making it the fourth most common cancer in the UK. So, should we increase our daily milk intake? And what other benefits does calcium offer?. Bone health. An abundance of clinical research supports the link between milk consumption and bone health.
