New research suggests that eating dried plums may reduce the risk of colon cancer, Medical News Today reported.
Researchers from Texas A&M University and the University of North Carolina found that a diet containing dried plums can positively affect microbiota, also referred to as gut bacteria, throughout the colon. This, in turn, lowers an individual's risk of developing colon cancer.
"Through our research, we were able to show that dried plums promote retention of beneficial bacteria throughout the colon, and by doing so they may reduce the risk of colon cancer," researcher Dr. Nancy Turner, Texas A&M AgriLife Research professor in the nutrition and food science department, said in a statement.
According to the American Cancer Society, colon cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. when men and women are considered separately, and the second-leading cause when the figures are combined. During 2015, colon cancer is expected to cause about 49,700 deaths nationwide, Newsmax reported.
For the study, researchers explored the potential cancer-protective properties of dried plums using a well-established rat model of colon cancer.
"Dried plums contain phenolic compounds, which have multiple effects on our health, including their ability to serve as antioxidants that can neutralize the oxidant effect of free radicals that can damage our DNA," Turner said.
The rats were fed a control diet or a diet containing dried plums, and both diets were matched for total calories and macronutrient composition so that the effect due to diet would be attributed to compounds uniquely found in the dried plums. They examined the intestinal contents and tissues from different segments of the colon.
They found that the dried plum diet increased Bacteroidetes and reduced Firmicutes -- the two major phyla of bacteria in the gut -- in the distal colon without affecting the proportions found in the proximal colon. However, animals consuming the control diet had a lower proportion of Bacteroidetes and increased Firmicutes in the distal colon.
Another observation made was rats consuming dried plums had significantly reduced numbers of aberrant crypts, aberrant crypt foci and high-multiplicity aberrant crypt foci compared to control rats.
"These aberrant crypt foci are one of the earliest observable precancerous lesions and are often considered to be a strong indicator for cancer development," researcher Derek Seidel said in a statement.
Turner said these data support the hypothesis that dried plums protect against colon cancer, which may be due in part to their ability "to establish seemingly beneficial colon microbiota compositions in the distal colon."
The findings were presented at the 2015 Experimental Biology conference in Boston.
