WHAT’S YOUR DIETARY PLAN?

A) fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, poultry, and fish

B) red meat, fried foods, full-fat dairy products, refined grains, and desserts

If you selected B, beware. Investigators who examined the relationship between the dietary patterns of more than 1,000 people who had been treated for stage III colon cancer and their risk of colon cancer recurrence found that those who followed a typical American diet (answer B) were three times more likely to experience a recurrence of colon cancer than their counterparts who followed a more prudent diet (answer A), and they also were more likely to die.

The study, which was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is the first to address the effect of diet on recurrence in a population of colon cancer survivors. Since this was an observational study that relied on the participants to remember and report what they ate, the investigators caution that their results do not prove that a typical American diet causes colorectal cancers to recur.