Eating red meat, white bread and white potatoes may increase a person's risk of developing a common type of kidney cancer, while eating vegetables may reduce kidney cancer risk, according to new research published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
In this study, researchers from the University of Florida investigated whether certain types of foods or food groups might influence the risk of kidney cancer by comparing the diets of 335 people with kidney cancer with 337 healthy peers.
People who ate red meat five or more times a week were more than four times as likely to develop kidney cancer when compared to people who consumed red meat less than once a week.
White bread and white potatoes also increased the cancer risk in study participants, with the strongest association seen in women.
Women who ate white bread more than five times per week were three times more likely to develop kidney cancer than women who ate white bread less than once a week.
People who ate the most tomatoes, spinach and other leafy green vegetables had lower kidney cancer risk than those who ate the least amount of these vegetables.
It's thought that foods like white bread or white potatoes could boost cancer risk because of their high glycemic index. Glycemic index indicates how quickly blood glucose rises after eating a particular food.
"Foods that have a high glycemic index are known to affect cancer growth factors," explains this study's author.
Kidney cancer is more common in men than in women. It is most often found in people over 50 years of age. There is no single cause of kidney cancer, but some factors, like being overweight or having high blood pressure, increase the risk of developing this type of cancer.
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