Preventing bowel cancer
Bowel cancer is one of the most common cancers in the UK and in the world. It is also one of the most preventable.
On this page
Many of the risk factors for bowel cancer are down to diet and how active we are, so changing the way you and loved ones live could have a big impact on helping to reduce the chance of you developing bowel cancer in your lifetime.
It is estimated that around 45% of bowel cancer cases could be prevented if people followed our Cancer Prevention Recommendations in their day-to-day life.
> Get a copy of our Protect yourself against bowel cancer booklet
How to prevent bowel cancer and reduce your risk
There are 5 key steps you can take to reduce your risk. All of them are based on research from our Global Cancer Update Programme.
-
1. Eat well
Your diet has a strong influence over whether or not you may develop bowel cancer in your lifetime. Eating a healthy, balanced diet and reducing consumption of certain foods can help improve your chances of not developing bowel cancer.
There’s strong evidence that eating processed meat (such as salami, bacon and ham) is a cause of bowel cancer. Eating a lot of red meat (such as beef, lamb, pork or goat) can also increase your risk of bowel cancer. Try to limit your intake to no more than three portions (350–500g cooked weight) of red meat a week and avoid processed meat whenever possible.
Foods that contain fibre have also been shown to lower bowel cancer risk and help keep your digestive system healthy. This may be because fibre helps food pass through the digestive system quicker. Try to include more fibre-rich foods such as wholegrains like wholewheat pasta and brown rice, pulses like beans and lentils, and a variety of different coloured vegetables and fruit in your diet.
-
2. Maintain a healthy weight
Living with excess weight or obesity is a cause of bowel cancer. It’s estimated that around 11% of bowel cancer cases are caused by excess weight. Maintaining a healthy weight can mean you are less likely to develop bowel cancer. To reduce your risk, try to maintain a healthy weight by making changes to your diet and how active you are. Read our weight matters guide to find out ways you can watch your weight and keep it at a maintained level. To reduce the risk, you should aim to maintain a healthy body weight, which can be achieved through healthy eating and regular exercise.
To see if you are a healthy weight for your height, check out our BMI calculator.
-
3. Be more active
To help reduce your risk of bowel cancer, you should try to be physically active in any way that you enjoy, whether that is playing sports like tennis, or going for a brisk walk. Being physically active helps you maintain a healthy weight, which is another way key way to help prevent bowel cancer.
Physical activity is a great for helping to move food through your digestive system, which may be one of the ways that physical activity can help to protect against bowel cancer.
Adults should aim to do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week. This can be broken down into blocks of 20-30 minutes each day. The type of activity you do can vary from brisk walking, swimming, cycling, dancing, playing football, or an exercise class. You can find inspiration in our living an active life guide. If you want to see the calories you’re burning through different activities, then try out our exercise calorie calculator.
-
4. Reduce your alcohol intake
There’s strong evidence that drinking alcohol is a cause of bowel cancer. It’s been estimated that drinking alcohol is linked to 6% of bowel cancer cases in the UK. By limiting your alcohol intake, you can reduce your risk of bowel cancer.
UK Chief Medical Officers recommend drinking no more than 14 units of alcohol a week, spread across 3 days or more. To keep your cancer risk low, it’s best not to drink. However, if you do drink regularly, cutting down on how much you drink will help lower your risk. For tips to help you reduce your intake, view our limiting alcohol consumption guide. Maybe try having alcohol-free days throughout your week to bring your consumption down even further.
Alcohol is also quite high in calories, but provides very little of the nutrients your body needs. To see how many calories are in different alcoholic drinks, check out our alcohol calorie calculator to work out the total calories in different alcoholic drinks to help keep track. If you want some alcohol-free alternatives, check out our healthy drinks recipes for some inspiration.
> Reduce your alcohol intake to prevent cancer
-
5. Don’t smoke
Smoking is known to cause bowel cancer, in fact tobacco is the leading cause of cancer worldwide. To reduce your risk, smokers should stop smoking. Any form of tobacco use, whether you smoke, chew or inhale it, should be reduced to help prevent cancer from developing. The NHS stop smoking service or you GP, can help you quit, though vaping has been found to be an intermediary action that is less harmful. While the long-term health implications of e-cigarettes, however, is unknown.
> Smoking and cancer
Go to a bowel cancer screening
The majority of bowel cancer cases can be successfully treated if they are found early – that’s why it’s important to take part in bowel cancer screening whenever you are invited. Screening can detect bowel cancer before symptoms start to show, giving you a much improved chance of combatting the disease.
> Visit the NHS in the UK to find out about bowel cancer screening, symptoms and treatment
Diet to help prevent bowel cancer
Making changes to your diet, such as cutting down on how much red and processed meat you eat, and eating more plant-based food like vegetables, fruit, and pulses like beans, is a big step you can take to help lower your bowel cancer risk.
If you want ideas of some nutritious and tasty recipes, check out our range of healthy recipes which are all designed to be nutritious and flavoursome. Whether you want breakfast, lunch, dinner or even snack ideas, we have a wide range of options for you to browse.
Stay hydrated
As well as eating healthier food, keeping hydrated is also really important for our general health and helps to keep our digestive system functioning well. You should be drinking around 6–8 glasses of fluid every day to stay hydrated. Water is the best option, but lower-fat milk, unsweetened tea and coffee, and sugar-free drinks all count. It’s best to avoid sugary drinks like cola. This will also mean that you keep within your recommended daily sugar intake (sugar-sweetened drinks contribute the most sugar in the UK diet!)
Help us fund our pioneering research
We fund pioneering research projects to help progress our understanding of bowel cancer and what we can do to prevent it. Between April 2021 and June 2024, we funded 21 grants focused on colorectal cancer, representing 20% of our total portfolio. By donating what you can, we can continue to fund these projects and make one of the most preventable cancers even more preventable.
Prevention FAQs
Here are some common questions we receive around how to reduce your risk of bowel cancer, with answers from our experts.
-
How many cases of bowel cancer could be prevented in the UK each year?
We estimate that around 45% of bowel cancer cases in the UK could be prevented if we all made some small changes to our diets such as eating more wholegrains, and eating less red and processed meat. Other changes – such as cutting down on your alcohol intake, increasing how much activity you do, and being a healthy weight – also reduce the risk of many other diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
-
Which food can help to prevent bowel cancer?
Food that has been found to help reduce your cancer risk include:
- Wholegrains
- Beans, legumes and pulses
- Fruit and vegetables
- Fish
Making these foods a big part of your daily diet is not only important for your general health, but also means that you’re making bowel cancer less likely.
-
Apart from eating wholegrains, what else can I eat to reduce my risk?
Replacing red and processed meat with chicken, fish, eggs, pulses and soya-based food like tempeh and tofu is a great way to help reduce your risk of bowel cancer.
We also recommend a variety of different-coloured fruit and vegetables. They’re an essential part of a healthy, balanced diet and can help maintain a healthy weight, which is important for helping to prevent bowel cancer as well as many other chronic diseases.
It’s possible that eating plenty of fish could also reduce your risk, but more research is needed before we can say for definite.
-
Can physical activity help protect against bowel cancer?
Moderately intense physical activity, such as brisk walking, can help reduce your risk of cancer of the colon, a part of the bowel. Our research has found that people who are more physically active have a decreased risk compared with those who do very little.
For cancer prevention generally, people should aim to do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity every week.
-
I’ve heard that multivitamins and vitamin D supplements can reduce my risk of bowel cancer. Is this true?
For cancer prevention we advise against taking supplements. However, there are certain supplements that are recommended.
The UK Department of Health advises that people should consider taking a daily supplement containing 10 micrograms of vitamin D in autumn and winter to protect bones and muscle health. During the spring and summer, most people should be able to make all the vitamin D they need from sunlight but remember to take safety precautions such as applying SPF 30 or above sunscreen at least 15 minutes before entering the sun.