by Vegetarians and vegans develop much less likely to develop a number of cancer, as a detailed nutritional study has found.
The research study with 80,000 people in North America showed that vegetarians had a 12% lower risk of developing cancer as meat eaters.
A vegan diet is understood to reduce the risk of cancer by about a quarter.
A vegetarian diet was also attributed to further reduce the risk of specific cancer.
Vegetarians reduce the risk of stomach cancer by up to 45% and the risk of lymphomas by 25%.
The main author of the study, Gary Fraser, said this was the first study with strong information that reports about the connection between different vegetarian diets and the risk of less frequent cancer.
Mr. Fraser said that the study also provided solid evidence that previous studies confirmed that vegans had a low risk of shared breast and prostate cancer.
The risk of colon cancer was reduced by around 20% with a vegetarian diet, added Mr. Fraser.
“These are relatively unique information and possibly the most robust that are in relation to cancer such as stomach and lymphoma,” said Fraser. “It can also indicate several other cancer such as lungs, ovary and pancreas, in which the evidence from this study indicates a lower risk of vegetarians, but did not quite achieve the necessary standard to say more.”
Fraser said other types of cancer such as uterus, myeloma, myeloid leukemia or that of the nervous system gave no indication of protection against nutrition.
The study was published this month in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, and about half of the 80,000 people involved were vegetarians.
The researchers pursued almost 80,000 members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in North America, which already have a much lower risk of cancer compared to the general population in the United States.
“Many of these non-vegetarian adventists in this study were still very health-conscious. In a way, it is surprising that we have found anything at all,” added Fraser.
While the new study found increased advantages for vegans compared to other vegetarian diets, an exception was that a pescavarian diet had a lower risk of colorectal cancer compared to other vegetarian diets.
Vegetarians who ate dairy products and eggs also had some protection against blood cancer, added the study.
It was also found that vegetarians are slimmer, smoked and less drunk, trained a little more and rather have a university degree.
Dr. Tilman Kuhn from Belfast from Queen’s University, who was not involved in the study, told the time that the reduced risk of vegetarians in the development of gastrointestinal cancer was not surprising.
He said: “The diets with low meat and high fiber over whole grain, fruit and vegetables have associated themselves as with less risk of these cancer in other population groups.”
“The results of the lymphoma are surprising and new because the underlying mechanisms are not known,” he added. “The study is one of the few studies worldwide with a sensible number of vegans and vegetarians under long -term observation. The comparison of long -term diets is a strong research model.”
