Vegetarian Diet Helps Ward Off Cancer

by Sreeraman on  March 18, 2009 at 3:09 PM Diet & Nutrition News
  •   Print
  •   Share
  •   Comments
  •  Text 
A vegetarian diet could help protect against cancer, new research suggests.

Writing in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers, who analyzed 52,700 men and women, found that those who did not eat meat had significantly fewer cancers overall than those who did.

However, surprisingly, scientists also found a higher rate of colorectal cancer - a disease linked with eating red meat - among the vegetarians.

In the study, researchers looked at men and women aged 20 to 89 recruited in the UK in the 1990s. The volunteers were divided 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.

"It’s interesting - it suggests there might be some reduction in cancers in vegetarians and fish-eaters and we need to look carefully at that," The BBC quoted study leader Professor Tim Key, a Cancer Research UK epidemiologist at the University of Oxford, as saying.

He added: "It doesn’t support the idea that vegetarians would have lower rates of colorectal cancer and I think it means we need to think more carefully about how meat fits into it."

Source-ANI
SRM

 Email Email   RSS Feeds RSS Feeds   Print this page Print   Save this page Save   Link Link   Syndicate Syndicate   Comments Comments   Bookmark and Share
 
Comment & Contribute
Comments should be on the topic and should not be abusive. Comments are normally moderated and are reviewed after they are posted.
* Your comment can be maximum of 2500 characters

Notify me when reply is posted
I agree to the terms and conditions
  
If you have a question about health related issues, you can now post it in our Ask An Expert section on our community website Medwonders.com and get answers from our panel of experts.
X

Medwonders Health Network

  • Health News Index
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
News Archive
Date :
Category :
Keyword :
Quiz on Cancer
Looking for information on cancer? Go through medindia's Cancer quiz.
  • News Quick Links
News Central Health Watch
Latest Health News Health In Focus
News Category (500+) Breaking Health News
Popular News Celebrating Life
Health News and Press Release Medindia - Exclusive
News Photo Gallery India Special
News Video Gallery Lifestyle and Wellness
News From Other Resources
Cancer
Complete Medindia Resources
News Categories:  
Obesity Health Center

Diet & Nutrition Related News

» Research: Bright Colored Chips can Cut Consumption by Half » Olympic Athlete's Body Via the 80-10-10 Raw Vegan Diet
» Importance of Canned Foods To Help Tackle IOM Weight Of The Nation Recommendations, Highlights Study » US Rules Pomegranate Juice Claims Deceptive
» Reducing Entrée Size Could Increase Fruit and Vegetable Intake in Children » Dieters Should Eat 300 Calories Less to Avoid Regaining Lost Weight After Dieting
» Doctors Advise People to Eat Healthy Food to Stay Cool This Summer » Link Between Meat Consumption and Masculinity
Read More >>