San Francisco - (dpa) - Although the relationship between eating dairy and the risk of cancer has not been scientifically proven conclusively yet, Western studies conducted in this field indicated that eating dairy may reduce the incidence of colorectal cancer and increase the risk of prostate cancer. For example.

However, these results may not be true for non-Western societies that have different dietary habits with regard to eating dairy, as well as the ability of non-Western bodies to digest and absorb this type of product. The Chinese, for example, do not consume large quantities of cheese and butter, and they also eat milk and yogurt in much smaller quantities than Western societies, and their ability to digest dairy is not entirely good due to the lack of the enzyme lactase, which helps digest milk sugar known as lactose.

In order to investigate this relationship between dairy intake and the risk of cancer among the Chinese, a team of researchers from the Oxford Institute of Public Health, Peking University and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences conducted a study involving more than 510,000 people in the age group between 30 and 79 years during The period was from 2004 to 2008 and covered ten different geographical regions in China.

By conducting a questionnaire on the participants, the study, which was reported in the scientific journal "BMC Medicine", revealed that 20% of the participants eat dairy on a daily basis, 11% on a monthly basis, and 69% do not eat it regularly.

During the study period, 29,277,000 cancer cases were recorded among the participants, including 6,282 lung cancer, 2,582 breast cancer, 3,577 stomach cancer, 3,350 colorectal cancer, and 3,191 liver cancer.

And it was found that people who regularly eat dairy have an increased risk of liver and breast cancer, as consuming 50 grams per day of dairy increases the risk of developing the two types by 12% and 17%, respectively. The study, which was reported by the website "Medical Express", which specializes in medical sciences, did not find a relationship between dairy consumption and prostate, colorectal, or any other types of cancer included in the research.

Although the study does not reveal a clear causal relationship between dairy intake and cancer, the research team stresses that there are several accepted biological mechanisms that may explain the relationship between cancer and dairy.