Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Original Communication
  • Published:

Relations between vegetable, fruit and micronutrient intake. Implications for odds ratios in a case–control study

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 56, pages 166–170 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Objective: To investigate whether the protection observed for some micronutrients, such as beta-carotene, in several observational studies may simply reflect vegetable and fruit intake.

Design: A case–control study conducted in Italy.

Subjects: The subjects were 1225 colon cancer patients, 728 rectal cancer patients and 4154 hospital controls.

Results: For the 16 micronutrients considered, the more closely a micronutrient was correlated with total vegetable and fruit intake, the more it appeared protective against colorectal cancer.

Conclusion: When studying the effect of a nutrient on disease risk in an observational setting, its relation to other nutrients and foods must be taken into account.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Block G . 1991 Vitamin C and cancer prevention: the epidemiologic evidence Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 53: 270S–282S

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Breslow NE, Day NE . 1980 Statistical Methods in Cancer Research 1: The Analysis of Case–Control Studies Publication no 32. Lyon: IARC Science

    Google Scholar 

  • Decarli A, Franceschi S, Ferraroni M, Gnagnarella P, Parpinel MT, La Vecchia C, Negri E, Salvini S, Falcini F, Giacosa A . 1996 Validation of a food frequency questionnaire to assess dietary intakes in cancer studies in Italy: results for specific nutrients Ann. Epidemiol. 6: 110–118

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Eberhardt MV, Lee CY, Liu RH . 2000 Antioxidant activity of fresh apples Nature 405: 903–904

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Franceschi S, Barbone F, Negri E, Decarli A, Ferraroni M, Filiberti E, Giacosa A, Gnagnarella P, Nanni O, Salvini S, La Vecchia C . 1995 Reproducibility of an Italian food frequency questionnaire for cancer studies. Results for specific nutrients Ann. Epidemiol. 5: 69–75

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Franceschi S, Favero A, La Vecchia C, Negri E, Conti E, Montella M, Giacosa A, Nanni O, Decarli A . 1997 Food groups and risk of colorectal cancer in Italy Int. J. Cancer 72: 56–61

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Franceschi S, La Vecchia C, Russo A, Favero A, Negri E, Conti E, Montella M, Filiberti R, Amadori D, Decarli A . 1998 Macronutrient intake and risk of colorectal cancer in Italy Int. J. Cancer 76: 321–324

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ghadirian P, Lacroix A, Maisonneuve P, Perret C, Potvin C, Gravel D, Bernard B, Boyle P . 1997 Nutritional factors and colon carcinoma: a case–control study involving French Canadians in Montreal, Quebec, Canada Cancer 80: 858–864

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hennekens CH, Buring JE, Manson JE, Stampfer M, Rosner B, Cook NR, Belanger C, LaMotte F, Gaziano JM, Ridker PM, Willett W, Peto R . 1996 Lack of effect of long-term supplementation with beta carotene on the incidence of malignant neoplasms and cardiovascular disease New Engl. J. Med. 334: 1145–1149

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Krinsky NI . 1991 Effects of carotenoids in cellular and animal systems Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 53: 238S–246S

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • La Vecchia C, Tavani A . 1998 Fruit and vegetables, and human cancer Eur. J. Cancer Prev. 7: 3–8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • La Vecchia C, Braga C, Negri E, Franceschi S, Russo A, Conti E, Falcini F, Giacosa A, Montella M, Decarli A . 1997 Intake of selected micronutrients and the risk of colorectal cancer Int. J. Cancer 73: 525–530

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee IM, Cook NR, Manson JE, Buring JE, Hennekens CH . 1999 Beta-carotene supplementation and incidence of cancer and cardiovascular disease: the Women's Health Study J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 91: 2102–2106

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Marshall JR . 1999 β-Carotene: a miss for epidemiology J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 91: 2068–2069

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Omenn GS, Goodman GE, Thornquist MD, Balmes J, Cullen MR, Glass A, Keogh JP, Meyskens FL, Valanis B, Williams JH, Barnhart S, Hammar S . 1996 Effects of a combination of beta carotene and vitamin A on lung cancer and cardiovascular disease New Engl. J. Med. 334: 1150–1155

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Patterson RE, Neuhouser ML, White E, Hunt JR, Kristal AR . 1998 Cancer-related behavior of vitamin supplement users Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev. 7: 79–81

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Peto R, Doll R, Buckley JD, Sporn MB . 1981 Can dietary beta-carotene materially reduce human cancer rates? Nature 290: 201–208

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rosner B, Willett WC, Spiegelman D . 1989 Correction of logistic regression relative risk estimates and confidence intervals for systematic within-person measurement error Stat. Med. 8: 1051–1069

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Salvini S, Gnagnarella P, Parpinel MT, Boyle P, Decarli A, Ferraroni M, Giacosa A, La Vecchia C, Negri E, Franceschi S . 1996 The food composition database for an Italian food frequency questionnaire J. Food Compos. Anal. 9: 57–71

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Snedecor GW, Cochran WG . 1989 Statistical Methods, 8th edn. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Steinmetz KA, Potter JD . 1991 Vegetables, fruit, and cancer. I. Epidemiology Cancer Causes Control 2: 325–357

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • The Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta Carotene Cancer Prevention Study Group . 1994 The effect of vitamin E and beta carotene on the incidence of lung cancer and other cancers in male smokers New Engl. J. Med. 330: 1029–1035

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Poppel G, Goldbohm RA . 1995 Epidemiologic evidence for beta-carotene and cancer prevention Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 62: 6 Suppl: 1393S–1402S

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Willett WC . 1998 Nutritional Epidemiology, 2nd edn. New York: Oxford University Press

  • Ziegler RG . 1989 A review of epidemiologic evidence that carotenoids reduce the risk of cancer J. Nutr. 119: 116–122

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The generous contribution of the Italian Association for Cancer Research, Milan, Italy, is gratefully acknowledged. The authors thank Mrs J Baggott and MP Bonifacino for editorial assistance.

Author information

Author notes

  1. E Negri: Guarantor: E Negri.

  2. E Negri, C La Vecchia and S Franceschi: Contributors: EN conducted the analyses and wrote the manuscript; CLV and SF organised the study and revised the manuscript.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche ‘Mario Negri’, Milano, Italy

    E Negri & C La Vecchia

  2. Istituto di Statistica Medica e Biometria, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy

    C La Vecchia

  3. Field and Intervention Studies Unit, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France

    S Franceschi

Authors
  1. E Negri
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. C La Vecchia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. S Franceschi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to E Negri.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Negri, E., La Vecchia, C. & Franceschi, S. Relations between vegetable, fruit and micronutrient intake. Implications for odds ratios in a case–control study. Eur J Clin Nutr 56, 166–170 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601317

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601317

Keywords

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links