Vegetarian Diet Linked To Better Colonorectal Health, According To Study

Colonorectal Cancer could claim as many as 50,000 lives this year, according to an article in Medical News Today. The solution to prevent it? A vegetarian diet.

Although the past 20 years have seen a decrease in deaths caused by the disease given the chance of earlier detection, Doctor Michael J Orlich of Lorna Linda University, CA, has found a correlation between a vegetarian diet and decreased risk in his study.

“Diet is a potentially important approach to reduce the risk of developing colnorectal cancer,” Orlich said. The study involved 77,659 adults between 2002 and 2007.

“Our vegetarians not only ate less meat than the non-vegetarians, but also less sweets, snack foods, refined grains and caloric beverages,” Orlich said.

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These individuals were at 22 percent lower risk of colnorectal cancer, with a 19 percent lower risk of colonorectal cancer. Even more, they were at a 29 percent lower risk of colonorectal cancer compared to those who did not follow a vegetarian diet.

Looking at the results by the type of vegetarian diet followed, the team found pescovegetarians (who eat fish) had a 49 percent lower risk of colorectal cancer, and lacto-ovo vegetarians (who eat milk and eggs) had an 18 percent lower risk. However, vegans had a 16 percent reduced risk, and semi-vegetarians were 8 percent less likely to develop the disease.

“We’re looking at the low end of the meat consumption spectrum,” Orlich said. “But even compared to a moderate intake of meat, a zero intake looks better, with or without fish.”

Meat itself has been found to be one of the highest causes of colon cancer. Individuals who consume 15 ounces per day had a higher accumulation of N-nitrosocompounds, which alter DNA and increase the incidence of colon cancer, according to researchers in London.

These researchers also noted that chicken meat contained heterocyclic amines, which are also carcinogenic. And in the U.S., factory-farmed chicken contains arsenic. 

Nevertheless, Dr. Alfred Neugut, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, stated that there has been no correlation between a vegetarian diet and a lower incidence of colonorectal cancer.

“That’s the problem in dietary studies of cancer. We don’t know exactly what the connection is,” Neugut said.