VIDEO: High-fiber, plant-based diet improves metabolic factors in precancerous patients
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ORLANDO — In patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance and elevated BMI, a plant-based, high-fiber diet improved metabolic and microbiome profiles and immune subsets, according to a study.
“Patients with these precancerous states and elevated BMI are twice as likely to progress to multiple myeloma,” Urvi A. Shah, MD, MS, a hematologist-oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said in this Healio video perspective.
In a poster at the American College of Lifestyle Medicine Conference, Shah reported results from the NUTRIVENTION study, in which patients were given behavioral counseling, 12 weeks of a prepared high-fiber, plant-based diet and guidance regarding breakfast and snacks.
The researchers found BMI was reduced by a median of 7% and a mean of 8%, with 70% of subjects losing at least 5% of their BMI and 40% losing 10% at week 12 with those reductions being sustained by 72% and 44% at week 24, and 61% and 39% at week 52, respectively.
Improvements in quality of life, metabolic markers and microbiome alpha-diversity were also recorded and maintained through weeks 24 and 52.
“We do think a high-fiber, plant-based diet is associated with improvement in metabolic microbiome and immune biomarkers,” Shah said. “It is feasible and leads to sustained BMI reduction.”