A recently released Mayo Clinic study was “translated” by most newspapers that spoke of it as: “Dairy products increase the risk of prostate cancer.” And as always, alongside the decidedly alarmist conclusions, the study in these articles is not even linked.

So let’s see the direct source, that is the Mayo Clinic study published by The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association , whose title is: Effects of products of plant or animal origin on the risk of prostate cancer.

PROSTATE CANCER AND DIET: ARE THERE RISK FACTORS?

The researchers’ goal was ambitious. Finding dietary risk factors that can promote prostate cancer, or at least see if nutrition plays a minor role in prostate cancer.
Here we are already moving on slippery ground.
Prostate cancer is a cancer in which age, family history and genetics matter. In addition, two hormones are involved: a high testosterone value and a high IGF1 value.
Of course, a healthy lifestyle is always the best prevention weapon. However, the diet does not save you from the fact that you age, that you have a genetic or family predisposition. It can simply help you reduce your risk.

That said, let’s get to the studio.

MILK DERIVATIVES AND PROSTATE CANCER

• Researchers at the Mayo Clinic looked at 47 of the 297 studies initially selected.
• Of these 47 studies, less than a third are studies involving a good sample of participants, and one of the limitations of the research is that researchers have not analyzed or reviewed how these studies are collected. So maybe one study was very accurate in the response of the participants and another much less.
• Furthermore, none of these studies establish a cause-and-effect relationship.
  These two things are reported by the same researchers, speaking of the limits of their research.
  They simply correlated the participants’ eating habits with the data of those who got prostate cancer. They did not go to investigate whether those who got sick were old, genetically or familiarly or hormonally predisposed.
• Of the 47 studies, not all have found correlations between the consumption of animal proteins and the risk of prostate cancer, counting them are 13 out of 47 studies that have found an increase in the incidence between the consumption of milk and dairy products. So we have almost a quarter of the sample. The other studies did not find a link or conversely found a lower risk.
  Therefore the majority.
• Finally, of the 13 studies that found an increase in the incidence of milk, milk derivatives and prostate cancer, the results are not homogeneous. Some speak only of milk, but not of cheese. Some only of cheese but not of milk. Others of yogurt. Others of only butter and cream.

Do you understand that in such a context it becomes really risky to talk about the consumption of milk and milk by-products and the risk of prostate cancer?

And in fact the study makes a different conclusion, obviously important but different from these alarmisms: it says that a greater consumption of foods that contain vegetable proteins such as legumes, fruits, vegetables, nuts, soy products do not increase the risk of prostate cancer.
Ah OK.