From breast to bowel, scientists find you can slash your risk of 14 types of cancer by up to 30% just by adhering to seven key lifestyle goals

Striking new research has revealed the seven crucial habits that reduce the risk of developing cancer by up to 30 percent.

Eating 400 grams of whole grains, fruits, vegetables and beans per day are lifestyle choices, as is maintaining a healthy BMI.

Also on the list are limiting fast food, red and processed meat, and alcohol.

Following this advice closely was linked to a 30 per cent reduction in the risk of gallbladder cancer, according to a Newcastle University study of more than 90,000 Britons.

Meanwhile, rates of liver and ovarian cancer have fallen by more than a fifth, the results suggest.

The study was conducted to investigate whether seven recommendations from the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) and the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) in 2018 were effective in reducing cancer risk.

The factors included being physically active for 10 hours a week, eating less than 500 grams of processed meat a week and cutting out or limiting alcohol to less than 14 units a week – about six pints of beer or ten small glasses of wine.

Researchers tested the guideline on average on 94,778 Britons aged 56 years old.

They used self-reported health data, including on diet, exercise, body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference.

Each participant was scored on their compliance with the recommendations of the seven.

They also used cancer registry data to track cancer diagnoses over the eight-year study period.

In their analyzes they controlled for age, gender, socio-economic disadvantage, ethnicity and smoking status.

On average, the participants scored 3.8 out of seven for following the advice and 7,296 participants (eight percent) developed cancer during the study.

Analysis showed that greater adherence to the habits led to a lower risk of cancer.

For every recommendation patients adhered to, they reduced their cancer risk by 7 percent.

They also found that each one-point increase in medication adherence was associated with a 10 percent lower risk of breast cancer, a 10 percent lower risk of colorectal cancer, an 18 percent lower risk of kidney cancer, a 16 percent lower risk of kidney cancer. the risk of esophageal cancer, a 22 percent lower risk of liver cancer, a 24 percent lower risk of ovarian cancer and a 30 percent lower risk of gallbladder cancer.

People with a score of 4.5 or higher had a 16 percent lower risk of all cancers combined, compared to people with an adherence score of 3.5 points or less.

However, those who followed the advice most closely saw their risk of certain cancers, including head and neck tumors, increase.

The researchers said the explanation behind this finding is “not immediately clear,” but that cases of head and neck cancer may not be caused by lifestyle factors.

Meanwhile, fast food has been linked to cancer because eating it in large quantities increases the risk of obesity. Being overweight can cause a host of hormonal changes that can cause tumors to grow.

Red and processed meats contain compounds such as heme and nitrates, which, when broken down in the body, form compounds that can damage the cells lining the intestine, increasing the risk of cancer.

As for alcohol, it breaks down into a chemical called acetaldehyde, which can cause DNA damage linked to many cancers.

The researchers emphasized that because their study is observational, they cannot be certain that the lower cancer risk was caused by adhering to the seven recommendations.

The findings were published in the journal BMC medicine.