Resistant starch from beans and green bananas may help prevent cancer, study shows

Consumption of foods with resistant starch, such as oats, peas, beans and green bananas, can help prevent different types of cancer, including stomach, biliary tract, pancreas and duodenum, according to research conducted by scientists at the universities of Newcastle and Leeds, UK.

Published this Tuesday (26) in the scientific journal Cancer Prevention Research, the study is part of an international initiative to monitor patients with Lynch Syndrome, a hereditary disease that increases the chances of developing tumors in the gastrointestinal tract and in areas such as the endometrium and ovaries. .

In the first phase of the project, the researchers analyzed the effects of the use of aspirin and, in the second phase, they turned their attention to the ingestion of resistant starch, a type of carbohydrate that ferments in the large intestine, feeding beneficial bacteria to the body.

In the study, the group of 463 people who received a daily supplement of 30 grams of powdered resistant starch for up to four years had fewer cases of cancer in the upper gastrointestinal tract than the group of 455 volunteers who consumed a placebo. There were 5 diagnoses against 21 over the course of up to 20 years, a result that surprised the researchers.

The authors state that more studies are needed to explain the effects of resistant starch, but they indicate that the answer may include the role of this type of carbohydrate in the intestinal microbiota.

Resistant starch, also known as fermentable fiber, favors colon cells and helps reduce the pH of this region. “The more acidic environment, in turn, can hinder the proliferation of cancer cells in the intestine”, ponders the doctor Durval Ribas Filho, president of Abran (Brazilian Association of Nutrology)

According to the British scientists, the discovery has important implications for the care of patients with Lynch Syndrome because tumors in the upper gastrointestinal tract are difficult to identify and are often discovered late, contributing to higher mortality rates. In Brazil alone, according to the Inca (National Cancer Institute), cases of stomach and pancreas cancer are responsible for more than 25,700 deaths per year.

“It’s a new study that reinforces the importance of diet”, comments Ribas Filho. He recalls that previous research, such as the Hale Project, has already indicated a significant impact of nutrient intake on cancer prevention and says that the new publication can serve as a reference in clinics.

“The guidance for the intake of oats, peas, bananas, potatoes, beans, sweet potatoes, that is, foods that have a more adequate nutritional profile in the production of ‘good bacteria’ already exists, but every time a study is published, this recommendation gains strength. It is a preventive nutritional intervention”, he says.

The doctor also points out that the new research appears in a context of greater interest in the so-called enteric nervous system and its relationship with the microbiota and the immune system in the regulation of the organism, corroborating the importance of understanding this set.

“Hippocrates already said that all diseases start in the intestine. This has everything to do with the intestinal microbiota, with the proliferation of the so-called ‘good bacteria’. In theory, the problem then is the old saying ‘you are what you eat’ ‘, or as nutrologists like to say, ‘whoever the father of a disease, the mother was a deficient diet'”.