Cancer And Diet: Many Survivors Don't Follow Healthy Guidelines

Many cancer survivors don't always have the best diet after treatment, according to a recent survey.

Results from over 1,500 U.S. adult cancer survivors showed that they were less likely than others who had never had cancer to adhere to national dietary guidelines--failing to consoume the recommended daily amounts of vitamin D, vitamin E, calcium and potassium, according to Health Day. The quality of an individual's diet was determined by the Healthy Eating Index, which is based on the U.S. government's 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Findings revealed that cancer survivors typically ate less fiber than those who never had cancer at 15 grams per day vs. 15.9 grams per day, and they also ate more refined sugars and fat than counterparts or "empty calories," according to the LA Times; this was after adjusting for numerous factors, including sex, age and ethnicity, as well.

Researchers also specifically looked at certain types of cancer, including breast, colon, lung and prostate cancer. From these types, they found that lung cancer survivors had the worst diets while breast cancer survivors had the healthiest diets. 

However, researchers cautioned that at this time, they are still uncertain why cancer patients have worse diets than those who never dealt with the disease. The findings do not clarifiy why they are unhealthier than others and it could even be possible that after patients became ill, they started to eat healthier for a certain period. 

But the researchers stressed that the importance of the survey is in better educating survivors on the essentials of nutrition. 

"I want to emphasize that poor diet is prevalent in this population, and the chronic disease burden is high," co-study author Fang Fang Zhang, an epidemiologist at Tufts University , said via the LA Times. "A small change can potentially have a large impact to a high-risk population."

The findings are published in the journal Cancer. 

Related Articles

Elephants Rarely Get Cancer: Gene Copies Suppress Tumor Growth

For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).