Vegetarians Less Likely to Develop Cancer According New Research

Vegetarians will develop less blood, bladder and stomach cancer than meat eaters, according to new research published in the British Journal of Cancer.

The grouping of two studies featured more than 61,000 vegetarians
over a time span of 12 years and found they contracted less cancer,
independent of factors such as smoking, alcohol use and obesity
than those who consumed meat or fish or both.

Differences in stomach and bowel cancer rates were not as
pronounced as may have been expected based on previous
research. It is interesting to note, vegetarians had slightly higher,
but not significantly so, rates of colon and rectum cancer.

Cervical cancer rates were twice that of meat-eaters among vegetarians. Breast and prostate cancer rates were similar,
although there was less risk for prostate cancer among fish
eaters than meat eaters.

Participants were drawn from a pool of British men and women
who were either meat eaters and/or fish eaters or vegetarians.
Of the total study population, 3,350 were diagnosed with one or
more of the twenty cancers the researchers tested for.

They noted that 33 out of a hundred meat eaters will develop
some form of cancer compared to 29 out of 100 non-meat eaters.

For some cancers such as multiple myeloma, which strikes bone
marrow, vegetarians were 75 per cent less likely develop the
condition.

Cancers of the blood and lymph such as leukemia and non-Hodgkin
lymphoma were 50 per cent less likely in vegetarians than
carnivores.

"At the moment these findings are not strong enough to ask for
particularly large changes in the diets of people following an
average balanced diet. More research is needed to substantiate
these results and to look for reasons for the differences,"
explained the lead researcher from the Cancer Research UK
epidemiology unit at Oxford University.

The researchers said the reasons for lower cancer rates among
vegetarians were not clear but suggested it could be down to
viruses and mutation-causing compounds found in meat such
as N-nitroso which are thought to damage DNA.

The temperatures at which meats are cooked could also produce
damaging carcinogens.

The study population contained 15,571 men and 45,995 women,
one third of whom were vegetarian.

Levels of physical activity were higher in vegetarians and fish-only
eaters than in meat eaters, who also had higher body mass
index readings (BMIs).

But the researchers said none of the findings were conclusive
despite some evidence linking, for instance, high intake of fruit
and vegetables and onset rates of some cancers.

"There is also some evidence that a high intake of fruit and
vegetables might reduce the risk for stomach cancer, but the
data are not consistent and, although on average vegetarians
eat more fruit and vegetables than meat eaters, the difference
in intake is modest," they wrote.

Source:
British Journal of Cancer
(2009) 101, 192-197. doi:10.1038/sj.bjc.6605098
'Cancer incidence in British vegetarians'

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