Meeting protein requirements protects against cancer

December 13, 2006 in Cancer Prevention, Nutrition Topics in the News

Meeting protein requirements protects against cancer

Study findings from researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have found that consuming the recommended daily amount of protein may help protect against certain cancers that are not related to obesity.

To examine the effects of protein restricted diets, researchers assigned three groups to different diets; each group had 21 men and women.  The first group received a low-protein, low-calorie, raw food vegetarian diet.  The second group consisted of endurance runners, who ate a standard Western diet, while the third group was a group of sedentary adults who consumed a standard Western diet.

Compared to the athletes and sedentary athletes, the group who ate a long-term, low-protein, low-calorie diet had lower levels of insulin-growth factor 1, a hormone linked to cancer development. 

These findings suggest that protein intake may be an important determinant of cancer development.

These latest findings were reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

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