Coffee can reduce the risk of colon cancer

Drinking two cups of coffee per day can lower the risk of development of colon cancer, researchers found.

Researchers from the University of Southern California tracked the coffee consumption of nearly 8,500 people in Israel, including about 5,000 who had colorectal cancer and 3,500 who did not.

The results showed coffee drinkers were about a third less likely than non-drinkers to have colorectal cancer, Newsmax Health reports in reference to the LiveScience Website.The more coffee people drank, the lower their risk of developing the disease.

Lead researcher Stephanie Stenzel, who presented the findings at the meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, said the study adds to the growing body of research that suggests compounds in coffee have strong anti-cancer properties.

Scientists suspect drinking coffee may lower colorectal-cancer risk by speeding up the passage of food through the colon, providing less time for cancer-causing agents to be absorbed. It's also possible that compounds in coffee affect the composition of microbes in the gut or have direct cancer-preventing properties.

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