Meat-based Versus Pesco-vegetarian Diet and Colorectal Cancer

Diet including 4 servings per week of red meat (1 serving = 150 g), 3 servings per week of processed meat (1 serving = 50 g), and 1 servings per week of poultry (1 serving = 150 g), for a total amount of 900 g per week of meat.

Dietary intervention like the MBD with supplementation of alpha-tocopherol at a dosage of 100 mg/die. Available evidence suggests that alpha-tocopherol may help prevent colon cancer by decreasing the formation of mutagens arising from the oxidation of faecal lipids, by decreasing oxidative stress in the epithelial cells of the colon and by molecular mechanisms that influence cell death, cell cycle and transcriptional events (Pierre 2013, Bastide 2016, Bastide 2017, Diallo 2016). It is important to note that 200 mg/day of tocopherol was administered to 20,000 women for 10 years without side effects (Lee et al.,2005).

Diet excluding fresh and processed meat, poultry but including 3 servings per week of any type of fish, excluding shellfish (1 serving = 150 g), for a total amount of 450 g per week. Diet will contain other sources of proteins (e.g. eggs, dairy, legumes/beans). There is suggestive evidence that fish and vegetable consumption has protective effects against CRC (Vieira et al., 2017).