Regular consumption of dairy products is a risk factor for prostate cancer in men.
- Calcium intake can be non-dairy, through the consumption of seeds, nuts, legumes and other vegetables, fruits or cereals.
- In men over 50, prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed in France, with more than 71,000 cases per year.
8,000 dead. This is the sad annual report of prostate cancer in France in men, according to Public health France, making it the third deadliest cancer after lung and colorectal. According to the website Vidal, there are three main risk factors for prostate cancer: age (in men most cases are diagnosed around the age of 70), family history and ethnicity, because this cancer is more common in men of African descent, northern Europeans and North Americans. Then, we find the consumption of certain products such as tobacco, cold cuts or dairy products.
A link between the consumption of dairy products and the risk of prostate cancer
A new study published in the journal The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition also points to this last risk factor. Indeed, according to researchers at Loma Linda University in California, men who regularly consume dairy products such as milk but also yogurts or cheese are more likely to develop prostate cancer compared to those who do not. don’t eat it.
To reach this conclusion, the scientists followed more than 28,000 men who had, at the start of the study, no signs of cancer. The participants were divided into two groups, based on their diet: the members of the first did not eat dairy products and the second group included men who consumed them regularly.
These participants were followed for more than seven years by the researchers. At the end of this period, 1,254 of them, or nearly 4.5%, had prostate cancer or an incident related to this disease. Of those cases, 190 were at an advanced stage.
The risk increases with the amount
But among those who ate dairy, there were also differences in the risk of developing prostate cancer. In detail, men who consumed about 430 grams per day had a 25% higher risk of developing this pathology, compared to those who ate only 20.2 grams.
“The study data provided little evidence for an association between calcium intake and prostate cancer incidence. Dairy products, on the other hand, are causally linked to prostate cancer risk” , say the authors. It is therefore not the calcium itself but the dairy products that scientists incriminate. They put forward as reason the content of sex hormones contained in cow’s milk. But, for the moment, this is only a hypothesis that other studies will have to verify.
