Does milk lower risk of bowel cancer?

The news headlines this week say a daily glass of milk can lower your risk of bowel cancer but that’s only a small and misleading part of a much bigger picture. The study it’s based on suggests it’s the calcium in milk that lowers your risk of bowel cancer and found that calcium from both dairy and non-dairy sources has the same effect. But further than this, they found many other plant-based nutrients, that didn’t make the headlines, could also lower your risk of bowel cancer.

They looked at 17 dietary factors in over half a million older women and found an increased risk of bowel cancer linked to alcohol, red and processed meat – no surprises there.

What the headlines should have said was that in addition to calcium (in dairy and non-dairy milk) breakfast cereal, fruit, wholegrains, carbohydrates, fibre, total sugars, folate, vitamin C, phosphorus, riboflavin (vitamin B2), magnesium and potassium were all linked to a lower risk too. These foods are abundant in a healthy, varied vegan diet.

Again, the media has missed the point and focused on dairy milk, when the study’s main findings suggest how a healthy vegan diet contains all the nutrients you need to lower your risk of one of the UK’s biggest killers. This may be why, in part, people who eat a healthy plant-based diet have a lower risk of bowel cancer. The headlines should have said eat more fruit, vegetables, pulses, wholegrain foods, nuts and seeds – not so sensational though!