A large, long-term study in the U.K. has found that people who eat fish or who are vegetarians are less likely to develop cancer than people who describe themselves as meat-eaters. Surprisingly, for some types of cancer, risk was lower for those who ate fish than for strict vegetarians.

Led by a team at Oxford University, researchers studied 61,566 British men and women for several years. More than half of the people enrolled or 32,403 identified as meat eaters, 8562 as non-meat eaters who did eat fish (“fish eaters”‘) and 20,601 as vegetarians.

Some of the difference favoring fish consumption over vegetarianism may arise from known benefits of fish oil and some from known or risks from high consumption of dairy foods.

Consuming grapefruit appears to increase risk of breast cancer in post-menopausal women, according to a study in British Journal of Cancer (July, 2007) (Prospective study of grapefruit intake and risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women: the Multiethnic Cohort Study)

One quarter grapefruit per day compared to none increased risk by about one third. The significance of this slightly increased risk is underscored by 2 factors — women are taught lifelong to associate grapefruit intake with health and with weight-control (the “Grapefruit diet”).

The factor involved in the increased risk is a chemical in grapefruit (CYP3A4) that blocks the body’s breakdown of estrogen.

Since vitamin C and other antioxidants found in grapefruit are readily available from other fruits, with this new information women can choose to switch to oranges, tangerines, lemon juice, and other fruits and avoid grapefruit.