Cancer clarifications. (updates).

A new study out of the UK tries to make sense of decades of often-confusing research about the risks and benefits of specific foods.

A review of the evidence, published September 12, 2002, in the British medical journal The Lancet, concludes that studies over the years have confirmed little. Does broccoli really ward off cancer? The evidence isn't in yet, says Timothy Key, PhD, and his fellow scientists at the cancer unit of the University of Oxford. Previous studies had suggested that dietary components such as red meat, broccoli, garlic, fiber, folio acid, vitamin C and soy can either encourage or prevent certain cancers--but the links haven't been proven, says Key.

However, the study does find that some general indications are conclusive:

* Dietary choices account for about 30 percent of all cancers in Western countries, making food second only to tobacco as a potentially preventable cause of cancer.

* Obesity increases the risk of cancers in the breast, esophagus, colon, rectum, endometrium and kidney.

* Alcohol causes cancers of the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, esophagus and liver, and it causes a small increase in the risk of breast cancer.

* Adequate intakes ...