The three groups totaled 555 subjects even though the aim was to recruit 1,000 people. Calcium supplements resulted in a slight decline in new polyps, but fiber yielded an increased number of polyps. The addition of 2,000 mg of calcium brought the total intake to an average of over 2,900 mg, which is above the tolerable upper limit set by the U.S. Food and Nutrition Board. In addition, the increase of only 3.5 grams of fiber is minimal. It is likely that the effects observed were due to chance.
Small polyps are the first step in a series of growth that becomes colon cancer.
Just because these interventions have no effect at this stage does not mean they do not affect the cancer process at a later stage. An alternate explanation is that neither calcium nor fiber protects against colon cancer, but this study is not going to prove it one way or the other. Now when nutrition news gets confusing, there IS a place to go to get the real story. Our FREE daily email newsletter, Nutrition News Focus, helps you make sense of it all. It's written by Dr. David Klurfeld, Chairman and Professor of the Department of Nutrition and Food Science at Wayne State University.