UK, March 19, 2009: A UK study of 52,700 men and women, almost 1/3 of whom were vegetarian, strongly indicates that a vegetarian diet may help to protect against cancer. The participants, men and women aged 20 to 89 recruited in the UK in the 1990s, were categorized as meat-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians and vegans.
Analysis of the data shows that those who did not eat meat had significantly fewer cancers overall than those who did. The researchers also found that colorectal cancer was the only cancer that was more likely to occur on vegetarians — a disease traditionally linked with eating red meat. The reasons are still unclear.