Scientists have confirmed what have been a long-held belief: vegetarian diet may help to protect against cancer.
Analysis of data from 52,700 men and women by British researchers have shown that those who did not eat meat had significantly fewer cancers overall than those who did.
But surprisingly, the experts also found a higher rate of colorectal cancer – a disease linked with eating red meat – among the vegetarians, BBC News portal reported on Monday. Writing in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition the team, led by an expert from University of Oxford, said the findings were worth looking into.
Although it is widely recommended that people eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day to reduce their risk of cancer and other diseases, there is very little evidence looking specifically at a vegetarian diet.
In the latest study, researchers looked at men and women aged 20 to 89 recruited in the UK in the 1990s. They divided participants into meat-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians and vegans.
During follow-up there were fewer cancers than would be expected in the general population – probably because they were a healthier than average group of people.
But there was a significantly lower incidence of all cancers among the fish-eaters and vegetarians compared with the meat eaters.
For colorectal cancer, however that trend was reversed with vegetarians having a significantly higher incidence of the condition than the other groups. The researchers were surprised at the finding, which contradicts previous evidence linking eating lots of red meat with the disease.