Re: Fruit and Vegetable Intake and Overall Cancer Risk in the European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition

Extract

Boffetta et al. ( 1 ) reported in the Journal a weak but statistically significant association between fruit and vegetable intake and the overall cancer risk by analyzing data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort. The reduced cancer risk associated with an increased daily intake of 200 g of fruits and vegetables combined was 3% (95% confidence intervals = 1% to 4%) only. The large health campaigns organized in several countries using TV commercials or other public media to encourage the population to eat five daily portions of fruits and vegetables at first seem disproportionate for such a small benefit. However, in our opinion, the associations that are limited to overall cancer risk are not sufficient to provide adequate information on the benefit of increased daily intake of fruits and vegetables for cancer prevention. Such associations should be assessed in the context of other EPIC results.