Eating fish has no effect on health of large intestine

On 2 October, Gerda Pot received a doctorate for her research on this topic at Wageningen University, The Netherlands, in the Human Nutrition department.

For this research, 140 people ate two extra portions of salmon or cod every week for six months. Biopsies were performed on the subjects; tissue samples taken from the intestines were compared with samples from 70 people who had not eaten extra fish, to see if there had been any changes. There were no differences in intestinal cell division or cell mortality between the people who ate extra fish and those who did not. This could partly be explained by the fact that all the subjects were fish eaters before they took part in the investigation.

The consumption of fish is not the only potential factor for reducing the risk of cancer of the large intestine. Other factors - a moderate consumption of red meat and alcohol, reducing the amount of abdominal body fat and sufficient exercise - can also contribute to reducing the risk of cancer of the large intestine. Because fish consumption reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases, it remains important to eat fish twice a week.

Provided by Wageningen University