The plethora of information online about the health impact of plant-based diets is confusing to the public and major stakeholders and can paint plant-based diets in an unfavorable light. We are grateful for WCRF’s support that will enable us to investigate the impact of the planetary health diet on cancer risk and mortality. – Prof Sabine Rohrmann
Grant title: Does planetary health mean population health? Adherence to a planetary health diet and cancer risk and survival in a prospective cohort study
News and blogs
- Planet-friendly diet reduces risk of dying after cancer diagnosis
- Plant-based diets: eating for our health and the planet
Background
People are increasingly interested in plant-based diets (i.e., diets rich in plant-based products that include little, if any, animal products). Apart from their potential health benefits, plant-based diets have been promoted as environmentally sustainable. However, the abundance of non-scientific information online about the health impact of plant-based diets, with its wide range of credibility, is confusing to the public and can, at times, paint plant-based diets in an unfavourable light. Recently, international experts of the influential EAT-Lancet Commission recommended a mostly plant-based, sustainable diet referred to as the ‘Planetary Health Diet’.
Aims and objectives
The current study aimed to investigate if individuals who follow the planetary health diet proposed by the EAT-Lancet Commission have a lower risk for cancer. Additionally, we investigated if cancer survivors who followed the planetary health diet had lower risk of premature death compared to cancer survivors who did not adhere to the planetary health diet. We hypothesised that people (i.e., both cancer-free and cancer survivors) who closely followed the planetary health diet would have lower risk for cancer and would live longer than those who did not closely follow the diet.
Methods
For our analysis, we used data from the United Kingdom (UK) Biobank study. The UK Biobank study contained detailed information from more than 470,000 people, including information about their general health, dietary habits and lifestyle recorded between 2006 and 2010 from 22 centres throughout the UK. Study participants were followed over time. It was recorded when study participants were diagnosed with cancer or died during follow-up. Being such a large dataset, the use of the UK Biobank allowed us to determine the relationship between the planetary health diet with cancer risk and death – both overall, and for specific, common cancers (i.e., breast, colorectal, prostate).
Results
The findings suggest that people in the general population who more closely followed the planetary health diet had lower risk for cancer, cardiovascular disease and premature death. Additionally, cancer survivors who adhered to the planetary health diet after diagnosis had lower risk of premature death, including from cancer.
We also specifically looked at the how habitually adhering to the diet over time influenced risk and found that continually following the planetary health diet decreased risk of all-cause mortality and cancer, dependent on the cancer type.
Conclusion
Overall, these results, together with existing literature, support that the planetary health diet could be beneficial for human health, both for the overall population and for cancer survivors.
Impact
These findings provide much-needed evidence to support the role of the planetary health diet in lowering the risk of cancer and all-cause mortality. This reinforces the role this diet as a healthy and sustainable dietary choice.
Grant publications
- Nena Karavasiloglou, Flurina Suter, Alysha S. Thompson, Giulia Pestoni, Aedín Cassidy, Tilman Kühn, Sabine Rohrmann, Association between habitual adherence to the planetary-health diet and mortality and major chronic disease risk among UK Biobank participants, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2025, ISSN 0002-9165.
- Karavasiloglou, N., Thompson, A.S., Pestoni, G. et al. Higher adherence to the EAT-Lancet reference diet is inversely associated with mortality in a UK population of cancer survivors. BMC Med 23, 286 (2025).
- Karavasiloglou N, Thompson AS, Pestoni G, Knuppel A, Papier K, Cassidy A, Kühn T, Rohrmann S. Adherence to the EAT-Lancet reference diet is associated with a reduced risk of incident cancer and all-cause mortality in UK adults. One Earth. 2023 Dec 15;6(12):1726-1734. doi: 10.1016/j.oneear.2023.11.002. PMID: 38130482; PMCID: PMC10731983.
- Karavasiloglou N, Pannen ST, Jochem C, Kuhn T, Rohrmann S. Sustainable Diets and Cancer: a Systematic Review. Curr Nutr Rep. 2022 Dec;11(4):742-752. doi: 10.1007/s13668-022-00442-z. Epub 2022 Nov 21. PMID: 36409441; PMCID: PMC9750932.
