Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2003 Sep;78(3 Suppl):559S-569S.
doi: 10.1093/ajcn/78.3.559S.

Epidemiologic evidence of the protective effect of fruit and vegetables on cancer risk

Elio Riboli  1 , Teresa Norat
Affiliations
Review

Epidemiologic evidence of the protective effect of fruit and vegetables on cancer risk

Elio Riboli et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2003 Sep.

Abstract

Background: Diets rich in fruit and vegetables have been recommended for preventing cancer. The evidence supporting this recommendation is based on observational studies, although results of several prospective studies have cast some doubts on whether fruit and vegetables are associated with cancer risk reduction.

Objective: We sought to summarize evidence from case-control and prospective studies on fruit and vegetable intake and cancer risk with a meta-analytic approach.

Design: Published case-control and cohort studies that reported on total vegetable and fruit intake and risk of cancer of several sites were included. Relative risks were estimated by using linear logistic regression models.

Results: Case-control studies overall support a significant reduction in the risks of cancers of the esophagus, lung, stomach, and colorectum associated with both fruit and vegetables; breast cancer is associated with vegetables but not with fruit; and bladder cancer is associated with fruit but not with vegetables. The overall relative risk estimates from cohort studies suggest a protective effect of both fruit and vegetables for most cancer sites considered, but the risk reduction is significant only for cancers of the lung and bladder and only for fruit.

Conclusions: Prospective studies provide weaker evidence than do case-control studies of the association of fruit and vegetable consumption with reduced cancer risk. The discrepancies may be related to recall and selection biases in case-control studies. In contrast, the association may have been underestimated in prospective studies because of the combined effects of imprecise dietary measurements and limited variability of dietary intakes within each cohort.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

LinkOut - more resources

-