Vegetarian diet tied to reduced risk for colorectal cancer

Vegetarians, rejoice. A new health study says eating all those plants may cut your risk for colorectal cancer the second leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. by about 20 percent. For the study, published this month in the online edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association publication Internal Medicine, researchers kept track of 77,000 men and women over the course of seven years. Roughly half of the participants were meat-eaters, and the others fell into four vegetarian-like groups: semi-vegetarians (ate meat less than once a week), pesco-vegetarians (ate fish but not other meat), lacto-ovo vegetarians (ate eggs and dairy but no meat) and vegans (no meat, no dairy, no eggs).

After seven years vegetarians were found to be less likely to develop the disease compared to participants who ate meat, but pesco-vegetarians, in particular, came out the best. All vegetarians together had on average a 22-percent reduction in the risk of developing colorectal cancer, compared with non-vegetarians, lead researcher Dr. Michael Orlich said, according to CBS. Those who ate fish, on the other hand, saw a 43-percent reduction rate. Experts noted that nevertheless there is still no concrete evidence that this reduction in colorectal cancer is due to diet.

John Petrick

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Vegetarians have lower risk of colorectal cancer, study finds