Frequency of Organic Food Consumption and Cancer Risk

• Researchers investigated the association between consumption of organic foods and the risk of cancer in a population-based cohort study of 68,946 French adults. A significant reduction in the overall risk of cancer was observed among participants with high frequency of organic food consumption.
• The study results suggest that promoting organic food consumption may be an effective strategy for cancer prevention, provided that these findings are confirmed.

IMPORTANCE    Although organic foods are less likely to contain pesticide residues than conventional foods, few studies have examined the association of organic food consumption with cancer risk.

OBJECTIVE     To prospectively investigate the association between organic food consumption and the risk of cancer in a large cohort of French adults.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS     In this population-based prospective cohort study among French adult volunteers, data were included from participants with available information on organic food consumption frequency and dietary intake. For 16 products, participants reported their consumption frequency of labeled organic foods (never, occasionally, or most of the time). An organic food score was then computed (range, 0-32 points). The follow-up dates were May 10, 2009, to November 30, 2016.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES  This study estimated the risk of cancer in association with the organic food score (modeled as quartiles) using Cox proportional hazards regression models adjusted for potential cancer risk factors.

RESULTS    Among 68 946 participants (78.0% female; mean [SD] age at baseline, 44.2 [14.5] years), 1340 first incident cancer cases were identified during follow-up, with the most prevalent being 459 breast cancers, 180 prostate cancers, 135 skin cancers, 99 colorectal cancers, 47 non-Hodgkin lymphomas, and 15 other lymphomas. High organic food scores were inversely associated with the overall risk of cancer (hazard ratio for quartile 4 vs quartile 1, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.63-0.88; P for trend = .001; absolute risk reduction, 0.6%; hazard ratio for a 5-point increase, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.88-0.96).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE  A higher frequency of organic food consumption was associated with a reduced risk of cancer. Although the study findings need to be confirmed, promoting organic food consumption in the general population could be a promising preventive strategy against cancer.

Association of Frequency of Organic Food Consumption With Cancer Risk: Findings From the NutriNet-Santé Prospective Cohort StudyJ Baudry, KE Assmann, M Touvier, et al JAMA Intern Med 2018 Nov 22;[EPub Ahead of Print],

To read the full study, please click here.