THIRD WORLD NETWORK INFORMATION SERVICE ON SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
Dear Friends and Colleagues
French Study Finds Lower Cancer Risk Among High Organic Food Consumers
One of the first large-scale studies on organic food consumption and cancerrisks involving 68,946 French adults found a 25% lower overall cancer risk among those consuming organic food most regularly compared to those who reported very little or no consumption of organic food. The study was conducted by French government scientists and published in the journal, JAMA Internal Medicine.
Significant differences in cancer rates were found for non-Hodgkin lymphoma (as much as a 86% reduction) and postmenopausal breast cancer, even after accounting for factors like socioeconomic status and exercise habits.
For this research, volunteers completed an organic food questionnaire online. They were asked about sixteen different organic products, and asked to self-report the frequency with which they were eaten. The list of products included dietary food and beverage staples — fruits and vegetables, meatand dairyproducts, grains, legumes, soy-based products, sugars, coffee, tea, and wine. The respondents were from the NutriNet-Santé epidemiological study cohort. The NutriNet-Santé study was launched in 2009 in France and involved over 270,000 French adults who completed detailed online health and food intake surveys, providing a substantial data set for researchers studying the link between diet, nutrition, and health.
The researchers call forfurther research to determine the underlying factors involved in this association, so as to be able to implement adapted and targeted public health measures for cancer prevention.
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Third World Network
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Item 1
ASSOCIATION OF FREQUENCY OF ORGANIC FOOD CONSUMPTION WITH CANCER RISK
FINDINGS FROM THE NUTRINET-SANTÉ PROSPECTIVE COHORT STUDY
Baudry, Assmann, Touvier et al.
JAMA Intern Med.2018;178(12):1597-1606.
22 Oct 2018
doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.4357
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2707948
Importance Although organic foods are less likely to contain pesticide residues than conventional foods, few studies have examined the association of organic food consumption with cancer risk.
Objective To prospectively investigate the association between organic food consumption and the risk of cancer in a large cohort of French adults.
Design, Setting, and Participants This population-based prospective cohort study among French adult volunteers, data were included from participants with available information on organic food consumption frequency and dietary intake. For 16 products, participants reported their consumption frequency of labeled organic foods (never, occasionally, or most of the time). An organic food score was then computed (range, 0-32 points). The follow-up dates were May 10, 2009, to November 30, 2016.
Main Outcomes and Measures This study estimated the risk of cancer in association with the organic food score (modeled as quartiles) using Cox proportional hazards regression models adjusted for potential cancer risk factors.
Results Among 68946 participants (78.0% female; mean [SD] age at baseline, 44.2 [14.5] years), 1340 first incident cancer cases were identified during follow-up, with the most prevalent being 459 breast cancers, 180 prostate cancers, 135 skin cancers, 99 colorectal cancers, 47 non-Hodgkin lymphomas, and 15 other lymphomas. High organic food scores were inversely associated with the overall risk of cancer (hazard ratio for quartile 4 vs quartile 1, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.63-0.88; P for trend=.001; absolute risk reduction, 0.6%; hazard ratio for a 5-point increase, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.88-0.96).
Conclusions and Relevance A higher frequency of organic food consumption was associated with a reduced risk of cancer. If these findings are confirmed, further research is necessary to determine the underlying factors involved in this association.
Item 2
ORGANIC FOOD CONSUMPTION LOWERS OVERALL CANCER RISKS IN LARGE-SCALE STUDY OF FRENCH ADULTS
Hygeia Analytics:
23 Oct 2018
https://hygeia-analytics.com/2018/10/23/organic-food-consumption-lowers-overall-cancer-risks-in-large-scale-study-of-french-adults/
The results are in on one of the first, large-scale studies on organic food consumption and cancer risks and they are significant and encouraging. It is widely recognized we need to do much more in preventing cancer, as opposed to treating it, and this study suggests that organic food may be an important piece of the puzzle.
A team of French government scientists analyzed 68,946 citizens in the NutriNet-Santé cohort. Individuals were surveyed to determine if those who ate more organic foods had lower cancer rates. Their new journal article, published online by JAMA Internal Medicine this week (that’s the prestigious journal put out by the American Medical Association), reports their key findings: people consuming organic food most regularly had 25% lower overall cancer riskcompared to the group of people reporting very little or no consumption of organic food.
The differences were substantial and highly statistically significant – “participants with the highest frequency of organic food consumption had a 25% lower risk of being diagnosed as having cancer during follow-up compared with those with the lowest frequency” (Hemler et al., 2018). Significant differences in cancer rates were found for Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (as much as a 86% reduction!) and postmenopausal breast cancer, even after accounting for factors like socioeconomic status and exercise habits (Baudry et al., 2018).
The NutriNet-Santé epidemiological study is following over 270,000 French adults. Participants complete detailed online health and food intake surveys, providing a substantial data set for researchers studying the link between diet, nutrition, and health. It was launched in 2009 in France, with an additional cohort in Belgium enrolled in 2013.
There are already 120 papers on PubMed that have been produced from the data compiled by the NutriNet-Santé study.
For this new research, over 95,000 volunteers completed an organic food questionnaire online. They were asked about sixteen different organic products, and asked to self report the frequency with which they were eaten.
The list of products included dietary food and beverage staples — fruits and vegetables, meat and dairy products, grains, legumes, soy-based products, sugars, coffee, tea, and wine.
Points were allocated for each product depending on whether they ate organic “most of the time” (worth 2 points), “occasionally” (1 point), or a version of “never/I don’t know” (0 points). This analysis resulted in an “organic score” of between 0 and 32 points, which was then compared with cancer incidences reported in the health status follow-up questionnaires that participants completed on an annual basis, or self-reported at any time online (Baudry et al, 2018).
Participants who had already been diagnosed with cancer were removed from the data set, and of those 89,711 individuals 68,946 completed the appropriate follow up surveys, and had the correct data available for the analysis. This group was 78% female, with a baseline mean age of 44.2 years. A total of 1,340 cases of cancer were identified in follow-up among the study cohort.
An invited commentary on the organic food-cancer paper appears in the same issue of JAMA Internal Medicine. In the piece by Hemler et al. (2018) entitled “Organic Foods for Cancer Prevention — Worth the Investment?” the authors first highlight the “probable human carcinogen” classification of the three widely used pesticides (diazinon, malathion, glyphosate), including by far the world’s most heavily applied pesticide (glyphosate) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). They then note all three pesticides have been linked to non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), and also acknowledge widespread exposure in the general population through mostly dietary sources.
After noting the strengths and weaknesses of the NutriNet-Santé study, and comparable results from other large-scale studies of diet-health outcomes (e.g. Million Women Study), Hemler et al. write “the relationship between organic food consumption and cancer is still unclear,” a key point that is hard to argue with.
As expected, they call for more research, and in particular, similar studies with a more rigorous method for quantifying pesticide dietary exposure and cancer risk, coupled with careful control of possible confounding factors. Solid and sound advice.