Dietary factors and colorectal cancer in Scandinavia.

The food consumption, including type and quantity of dietary fiber, of male population samples in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Kuopio, Finland, with a fourfold difference in incidence of colon cancer was studied. A cohort of male brewery workers in Copenhagen, who consumed approximately four times more beer than did the population at large, was investigated for the development of colorectal cancer. The results suggest that there is a protective effect of dietary fiber, which is not related to mouth to anus transit time, against the development of colon cancer. Beer consumption is unrelated to the development of colorectal cancer.