New research suggests maintaining a vegetarian, vegan, or pescovegetarian diet could reduce one's risk of developing colorectal cancers.
A team of researchers looked at a group of Seventh-Day Adventist men and women to find the link between diet and cancer risk, the JAMA Network Journals reported.
Among a group of 77,659 study participants the researchers identified 380 cases of colon cancer and 110 cases of rectal cancer. When compared to meat eaters, vegetarians proved to have a 22 percent lower risk of developing any type of colorectal cancer. More specifically, vegetarians had a 19 percent lower risk of colon cancer and a 29 percent lower risk of rectal cancer. Vegans were found to have a 16 percent lower risk of colorectal cancer, lacto-ovo individuals had an 18 percent lower risk, and pescovegetarians had a 43 percent lower risk.
"If such associations are causal, they may be important for primary prevention of colorectal cancers. ... The evidence that vegetarian diets similar to those of our study participants may be associated with a reduced risk of colorectal cancer, along with prior evidence of the potential reduced risk of obesity, hypertension, diabetes and mortality, should be considered carefully in making dietary choices and in giving dietary guidance," the study concluded.
Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in the U.S., and researchers have been working to identify ways to prevent it. This new study suggests dietary factors could have a huge influence on colorectal cancer risk.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
