Research

Mixed

Cereal fiber intake is specifically associated with a reduced risk of rectal cancer, whereas fruit and vegetable fiber showed no significant association with rectal cancer in this cohort.

If you are concerned about rectal cancer, prioritize cereal fiber sources like whole grains (oats, barley, whole wheat) over just fruits and vegetables. This study suggests cereal fiber has a specific protective effect against rectal cancer that fruit and vegetable fiber did not demonstrate.

GoodQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
for rectal cancer, the inverse association was only evident for fibre from cereals.
Neil Murphy et al. · PLoS ONE · 2012

Why this rating

Large sample size allows for sub-site analysis, though the effect for rectal cancer was only significant for cereal fiber.

Source

Dietary Fibre Intake and Risks of Cancers of the Colon and Rectum in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)

Neil Murphy et al. · PLoS ONE · 2012

DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0039361

cohort · n=477312Cited 268×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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