Add meat, milk proteins in your diet to ward off gut tumours

Eating meat and milk proteins act as antigens that prevent tumours from growing in human guts, specifically the small intestines, finds a study on Wednesday.

Experiments conducted by researchers led by the RIKEN Center for Integrative medical sciences (IMS) in Japan revealed how these proteins trigger the intestinal immune system, allowing it to effectively stop the birth of new tumours.

“Small intestinal tumours are much rarer than those in the colon, but the risk is higher in cases of familial adenomatous polyposis, and therefore the clinical use of elemental diets to treat inflammatory bowel disease or other gastrointestinal conditions in these patients should be considered very carefully,” said Hiroshi Ohno at RIKEN IMS. Familial adenomatous polyposis is a hereditary syndrome that predisposes you to develop Colon cancer.

The food antigens — along with the many others found in plants and beans — are generally considered foreign objects that need to be checked out by the immune system, according to the team.

They have previously reported that food antigens activate immune cells in the small intestines, and when activated by gut bacteria these cells are known to suppress tumours in the gut.