Eating nuts does not increase cancer risk

People who love to eat nuts can rest assured that they are safe from developing cancer, with a recent study showing no association between high nut consumptions and risk of total and specific cancers.

In this study, the authors investigated the relationship between nut intake (ie, peanut, tree nut, walnut, and tree nut other than walnut) and cancer risk. They assessed nut consumption by using food frequency questionnaire, updated every 2–4 years in the Nurses’ Health Study (1980–2014), the Nurses’ Health Study II (1991–2015), and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1986–2018).

The authors then examined the associations between consumption of total and specific types of nuts and risk of total cancer and common cancers, such as lung, colorectal, breast, bladder, and prostate. Finally, Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95 percent confidence interval (CI), as well as pooled HRs, in each cohort.

A total of 44,561 incident cancer cases were documented during 5,873,671 person-years of follow-up in 180,832 women and 45,560 men.

The pooled multivariable HRs of total nut consumption for ≥5 times/wk, relative to nonconsumers, were 0.99 (95 percent CI, 0.94–1.04; p_trend=0.54) for total cancer, 0.88 (95 percent CI, 0.74–1.04; p_trend=0.18) for lung cancer, 1.07 (95 percent CI, 0.92–1.26; p_trend=0.89) for colorectal cancer, 0.90 (95 percent CI, 0.71–1.14; p_trend=0.65) for bladder cancer, 0.96 (95 percent CI, 0.85–1.08; p_trend=0.36) for breast cancer, and 1.18 (95 percent CI, 0.92–1.51; p_trend=0.52) for aggressive prostate cancer.