A medical study published in the journal “Jama Network” found that diets that negatively affect the health of the gut microbiome (the bacteria in the digestive system that help the body process food) may increase the risk of colon cancer.

The study showed that excessive consumption of red and processed meat and products such as French fries and soft drinks, along with reducing the intake of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, increases a person’s risk of developing colorectal cancer by 27 percent.

Red and processed meat and other foods high in dietary fat, protein and sulfur cause gut bacteria to increase the production of metabolites (the intermediates and end products of metabolism by enzymes).

These metabolites, which become part of the gut microbiome, can increase inflammation, cause DNA damage, and increase the risk of colorectal tumor growth.

Commenting on the study, Dr. Andrew Chan, a gastroenterologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said: “We knew that the reason these foods increase a person’s risk of developing colorectal cancer is due to their effects on the gut microbiome.”

In their study, Chan and other researchers analyzed data from more than 210,000 adults, about 3,200 of whom developed colorectal cancer.

The researchers tested 500 people (300 of them men) on a diet they called the “sulfur microbial diet”, which consisted of a lot of soft drinks, French fries, red meat and processed meat.

The researchers said that participants in this diet also ate less fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes, according to the UPI news agency.
The participants were monitored and, after “genotyping” these gut bacteria, the researchers identified 43 sulfur-metabolizing bacteria.

The data showed that the presence of these sulfur-metabolizing bacteria was associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer in these participants.

It is worth noting that annually more than 140,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with colorectal cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.