A new study published on Feb. 12 says that eating yogurt could do more than just provide a delicious breakfast or snack – it could prevent colon cancer.
In the study, which was published in the journal “Gut Biomes,” doctors and scientists from Mass General Brigham examined two studies of more than 150,000 people who have been part of a cohort for at least 30 years.
“We hypothesized that long-term yogurt intake might be associated with colorectal cancer incidence differentially by tumor subgroups according to the amount of tissue Bifidobacterium,” said the study.
Bifidobacterium is a bacterium that is normally found in yogurt.
The study found that those who ate yogurt at least twice a week had “lower incidence of Bifidobacterium-positive proximal colon cancer” than those who ate it once a month or less.
“Our finding suggests that yogurt intake might have a cancer preventive effect for colorectal cancer with disrupted intestinal barrier,” said the study.
Dr. Tomotaka Ugai, one of the study’s co-senior authors, told Fox News Digital he was not surprised by the results. Ugai is an instructor at Harvard Medical School and a faculty member of the Cancer Epidemiology Program at Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center.
“Based on this study and other studies, yogurt can be considered beneficial for health, including lowering risk of the colorectal cancer subtype,” he said.
The scientists found that eating yogurt may reduce the risk of colon cancer “through the modulation of intestinal microbiome, which is quite reasonable,” Ugai added.
If a person already regularly eats yogurt, said Ugai, they should continue to do so, and “maybe more than two servings a week,” if they are concerned about preventing colorectal cancer.
While eating yogurt was shown to be possibly beneficial to prevent colon cancer, a person should not feel as though they should force themselves to eat it if they do not like it, said Ugai.
“If you’re not interested or you don’t like yogurt, no worries,” he said. “You don’t need to have it. There are many other healthy dietary options, such as vegetables, fruits, etc., which you can have, alternatively.”
While Ugai told Fox News Digital that it was “difficult to say” if there were any products that would have a similar impact on the gut microbiome as yogurt does.
A 2017 study, he said, linked diets that were “rich in whole grains and dietary fiber,” to a reduction in tumors in the colon.
So if a person really does not like yogurt, they “can eat such healthy foods, such as whole grains and dietary fiber, instead,” he said.