Eating a planetary health diet lowers lung cancer risk by 29 percent in a large study.

Lung cancer remains a leading cause of death worldwide, and finding ways to prevent it is vital for millions of people. A massive study involving over 106,000 participants from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial offers fresh hope. These individuals were followed for 8.8 years to see how their eating habits affected their health. The researchers looked at the Planetary Health Diet Index, a score that measures how closely a person's diet matches healthy, sustainable food patterns. They compared those with the highest scores to those with the lowest scores. The results were clear. People in the top group had a 29 percent lower risk of developing lung cancer than those in the bottom group. This difference was statistically significant and consistent across the entire study period. The study also looked at specific types of lung cancer, including non-small cell and small cell varieties. While the data showed a protective link for non-small cell lung cancer, the numbers for small cell lung cancer did not show a strong trend. Importantly, the findings held up even after the researchers tested the data in many different ways to ensure reliability. This research suggests that what we eat on a daily basis could play a major role in protecting our lungs from cancer.