A controlled dietary intervention aimed at increasing dietary fiber through the addition of rice bran (RB) and navy bean (NB) powder to meals and snacks alters gut microbiota in a way that might reduce the risk for colorectal cancer (CRC), suggests new research presented during the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2017 Annual Meeting.
"Dietary rice brain and navy beans are examples of foods with high dietary fiber content and other important phytochemicals that have inhibited colon carcinogenesis in animal and human epidemiological studies," lead author Erica Borresen, MPH, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, states in her abstract.
"Our pilot findings warrant further evaluation of these specific foods in a larger cohort and for a longer duration of consumption to assess CRC control and prevention markers in colon tissue."
The pilot project was part of the Beans/Bran Enriching Nutritional Eating for Intestinal Health trials (BENEFIT) trial, which aims to boost community knowledge about how simple foods such as rice bran and beans can affect gut health.
Researchers recruited 29 CRC survivors and randomly allocated them to receive either 4 weeks of a diet that included 30 g of rice bran and 35 g of navy been power a day or a control diet containing neither of these foods.
