This Food Group Decreases Your Risk of Gastric Cancer
by Ashleigh Feltham,  Accredited Practising Dietitian and Accredited Nutritionist.

We all want to live a long and healthy life. Many factors affect your health and quality of life. One of these is diet. Nutrition influences longevity and your risk of developing certain diseases, including cancer. One food group that plays an important role in reducing cancer development is vegetables. Most adults need 5-6 servings of vegetables a day.

The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating⁽²⁾ says one serve of vegetables is:

• ½ cup cooked green or orange vegetables (for example, broccoli, spinach, carrots or pumpkin)
• ½ cup cooked dried or canned beans, peas or lentils (preferably with no added salt)
• 1 cup green leafy and raw salad vegetables
• ½ cup sweet corn
• ½ medium potato or other starchy vegetables (sweet potato, taro or cassava)
• 1 medium tomato

You are not alone if you think you may be falling short of reaching your recommended serves of vegetables each day. The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating states that around half of Australians are meeting their daily target for this food group⁽²⁾.

An essay could be written on the benefits of getting enough vegetables in your diet. This post will focus on cancer risk, specifically gastric cancer. The National Cancer Institute defines gastric cancer as ‘cancer that forms in tissues lining the stomach. Also called stomach cancer.’⁽³⁾

A recent systematic review and meta-analysis, which are considered strong levels of study design, support the link between a higher intake of vegetables and a lower risk of gastric cancer. This link was seen significantly in populations that ate less than the recommended serves of vegetables each day.

This research reinforces the fact that you can’t supplement a food group like vegetables for a standard multivitamin to keep your body working at its best. To help you get started on increasing this food group, here are some tips that may help:

1. Start with achievable amounts and progress gradually. It takes a while for your body to adapt to the increase in fibre, so adding a whole extra five serves of vegetables all at once is not recommended. Start with a serve or two extra each day and work up gradually each week.
2. Make it tasty. It is not true that you can’t make friends with salad. Try adding tasty cheese, herbs and spices to add flavour to your salad. A common misconception is a salad needs to have iceberg lettuce. But any vegetable is a good vegetable, so add the ones that you like to eat.
3. Soup counts! Soup is a delicious and warming way to add more vegetables to your day as well as helping to keep you hydrated. Having variety in the vegetables you enjoy has many benefits as each vegetable has different nutrients that support the health of your body.
4. Try adding a vegetable to any snack and meal. For example, have an omelette for breakfast instead of toast and a boiled egg. Try adding kidney beans to your taco mince. Top a wholegrain cracker with cream cheese, spring onion and sliced carrot.
5. Try a vegetable protein meal. Swapping meat for a vegetable protein, like beans, helps you to meet your daily vegetable serves. Try chickpea patties, bean curries, stews and soups, bean burritos, a falafel bowl, loaded potato with beans and cheese, baked beans on toast or vegetarian lasagna.

Take home message:

There are so many good reasons to eat the right amount of vegetables each day. One of these reasons is reducing your risk of developing gastric cancer.

References:

1. Wu X, Qin G, Zhang R, et al. Effect of vegetable consumption on risk of gastric cancer: a systematic review and multi-level meta-analysis of prospective studies. Nutrition Research Reviews. Published online 2024:1-10.
2. Vegetables and Legumes/Beans, Australian Guide to Healthy Eating. Eatforhealth.gov.au, Australian Government National Health and Medical Research Council. Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care. 1/6/2024.
3. Gastric Cancer. National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.