Table 2. The role of different dietary patterns in the prevention and treatment of CRC.
| Dietary patterns | Characteristic | Shortcoming | Influence on the incidence of CRC | Impact on survival of patients with CRC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MD | High intake of vegetables, legumes, fresh fruits, whole grains and nuts, with olive oil (generally virgin olive oil with an acidity of less than 0.8% obtained through mechanical extraction) as the main dietary fat, moderate consumption of fish and dairy products (primarily cheese and skim milk), moderate consumption of red meat and moderate consumption of red wine (5) | MD lowers risk of CRC (6-8) | Reduces cancer mortality (9-11) | |
| DASH diet | Higher intake of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and nuts, moderate intake of low-fat dairy products, lower intake of animal protein, and controlled salt intake (12) | The DASH diet showed no significant benefit in reducing CRC mortality (9,10,13) | DASH diet may reduce the risk of CRC (14,15) | |
| Fasting | Fasting is considered a “green” natural therapy that entails consuming a moderate amount of drinking water and a small amount of vegetable juice and fruit juice while fasting from all other food for a limited period of time and relying on the energy stored in the body to support life activities (16) | For most people, especially cancer patients, it is difficult to adhere to fasting for a long time. Therefore, clinical studies primarily used the FMD instead of fasting, and related studies remain in the exploratory stage | The most effective nutritional intervention in the prevention and treatment of CRC, extending survival and disease progression (17) | |
| Vegetarian diet | Vegetarian diet is characterized by the consumption of fruits, vegetables, legumes, pulses, grains, nuts, seeds, fungi, algae, yeast and/or other nonanimal-based foods, with or without dairy products, honey and/or eggs (18) | A long-term plant-based diet increases the risk of malnutrition, and the effect of the application in the prevention and treatment of CRC is controversial | Helps reduce the risk of CRC (19-21) | |
| KD | A high fat, medium protein, and low carbohydrate diet (22) | The impact of KD on CRC requires more preclinical and clinical trials | Preclinical studies showed that KD intervention effectively slowed the growth of CRC (23,24) | KD has shown benefits in CRC treatment (25-29) |
CRC, colorectal cancer; MD, Mediterranean diet; DASH, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension; FMD, fasting-mimicking diet; KD, ketogenic diet.