The researchers assessed the lifestyles of 132 patients with lung cancer and 187 patients requiring minor surgery at the same hospital in north west Spain between 1999 and 2000.
Everyone was asked about their diet, smoking habits, occupation, and the type and quantity of alcohol they drank every day, including whether they drank red, white, or ros?© wine.
Most of the patients were men and in their early 60s. Around one in three were ex smokers, but almost 60% of the lung cancer patients were current smokers, compared with around one in four of the other patients. The lung cancer patients were also more likely to have worked in jobs putting them at risk of the disease.
One in four of the cancer patients didn't drink, compared with almost one in five of the routine surgery patients. Patients with lung cancer also drank more spirits, but beer consumption was roughly the same.
Both groups drank similar amounts of wine at around 3.5 glasses a day, but just over a third of the lung cancer patients drank red wine compared with over half of the other patients.
Compared with non-drinkers, each daily glass of red wine afforded 13% protection against lung cancer. Ros?© wine had no impact, and white wine seemed to have the opposite effect, although far fewer patients drank white wine. Neither beer nor sprits seemed to affect the development of cancer.
The results held true even after taking account of the amount of tobacco smoked, job type, and the total quantity of alcohol consumed.
The authors say that the beneficial effects of red wine may be down to tannins, which have antioxidant properties, and resveratrol, which has been shown to stifle tumour development and growth in experimental research.
Despite the good news for lovers of red wine, the authors caution against drinking several glasses a day in a bid to ward off lung cancer, because of the overall adverse effects on health of high alcohol consumption.
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The obesity crisis - particularly among women - has been overlooked for too long. The peak levels of obesity in the Cape Province were highlighted in the first IOTF report on the issue of global obesity in 1997, he added. This led to the World Health Organization ™s groundbreaking expert report Obesity: Preventing and Managing the Obesity Epidemic (WHO TRS894). Since then the South African government has recognised the important impact obesity and related non-communicable diseases is having, and has been extremely concerned to establish the extent of the problem in the young as well as in adults.
The South Africa Demographic and Health Survey undertaken in 1998, undergoing revision and due to be published next year, found high rates of overweight and obesity with 29% of men and 56% of women overweight, including 9% of men and 29% of women obese. The percentage with a BMI>30 reaches 46% in women between the age of 45-64.
The survey concluded: "Overall, these data suggest that the predominant pattern of malnutrition in adult South Africans, particularly in African and coloured women, is one of over nutrition, with remarkably high rates of obesity."
More recent data published in the South African Youth Risk Assessment Survey 2002 by the South African Medical Research Council show the prevalence of overweight (including obesity) among young people aged 13-19 years to be 17% overall affecting more girls (25%) than boys (7%). Prevalence was highest (over 20% for boys and girls combined) in white and Indian population groups. Another key factor revealed in the 1999 National Food Consumption Survey was that one in five children under the age of 9 had suffered from stunting, related to chronic undernutrition early in life, and ironically, the problem was worst among small children raised on commercial farms. These children may be particularly vulnerable to developing abdominal obesity with energy-dense western diets.
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