By David Liu, PHD

Thursday March 29, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- Increased caloric intake has been known to be associated with increased risk of cancer in the large intestine.  But now a new study in Nutrition and Cancer suggests that eating a new Western diet (NWD) may boost the risk too.

The study was conducted in mice which was a preclinical model for human familial adenomatous polyposis.  The study shows that mice that ate a western diet increased tumor multiplicity by 130%, compared to those that ate a standard rodent diet called AIN-76A.

For the study, Osamu Itano of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, NY and colleagues conducted three trials to examine whether 1) reduced calorie intake from the standard rodent diet or from the Western diet would reduce the risk of cancer, 2) the Western diet imposed a higher risk than the standard rodent diet.

The researchers reported "Mice were fed a controlled AIN-76A diet or a new Western-style diet (NWD). Intestinal tumor development was evaluated after 6 mo of feeding 1) AIN-76A diet (fed ad libitum) vs. AIN-76A (caloric intake reduced 30%); 2) NWD (fed ad libitum) vs. NWD (caloric intake reduced 30%); and 3) AIN-76A (fed ad libitum) vs. NWD (paired-fed with NWD providing equal caloric intakes to AIN-76A)."

The study found that a 30% reduction in calorie intake from the standard rodent diet or the Western diet did not reduce cancer risk whereas the mice eating the Western diet were 130% more likely to develop cancer, compared to those on the standard rodent diet.