Gardening and Salads Protect Against Lung Cancer

Regular consumption of green salad and gardening a few times per week may lead to a significant decrease of the risk to develop lung cancer, according to researchers at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Both smokers and non-smokers can protect themselves against this disease if they eat no less than four servings of green salad per week and work in the garden more often.

Lung cancer is the main cause of death for both men and women and more than 213,000 new cases appear each year, according to the American Cancer Society. Eight of ten lung cancer cases are caused by smoking tobacco. Other risk factors for lung cancer include secondhand smoke exposure, dust exposure, the patient`s history of smoking, respiratory diseases, or family history of cancer.

The specialists collected data from more than 3,800 participants from the Kelsey-Seybold Clinic. The researchers were able to create a baseline lung cancer prediction model comparing  subjects who suffer from lung cancer and current, former, and never-smoker counterparts who don`t suffer from the disease.

Initially, the protection was moderate, but when physical activity and a diet rich in green vegetables was included, the rates changed. Those who have never smoked had a discriminatory power of the model of sixty-four percent, while former smokers had a sixty-seven percent, and current smokers seventy-one percent.

The findings are important especially for the fifteen percent of those who develop lung cancer and don`t smoke, according to lead author Dr. Michele Forman. The researchers focused on green salad consumption because this is a marker for the vegetable consumption while gardening is a regular activity that may involve smokers and non-smokers.