Study: Vegetarian diet lowers cancer risk
Researchers found a significant reduction in risk, particularly for stomach cancer and lymphoma.
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A new long-term study by Loma Linda University has shown that a vegetarian diet reduces the risk of developing cancer by 12 percent overall. The researchers found that a vegetarian diet was associated with an up to 45 percent reduced risk of stomach cancer and a 25 percent reduced risk of lymphoma. This is according to a press release from the university.
Results of previous studies confirmed
Gary Fraser, lead author of the study, said this was the first study to provide meaningful information with sufficient precision to report on the association between different vegetarian diets and the risk of some cancers. He said the study also provides solid evidence to support previous studies that vegans have about a 25 percent lower risk of the common cancers breast and prostate cancer. In addition, vegetarian diets overall provide a significant risk reduction for colorectal and stomach cancer and this report provides new evidence of their lower risk for lymphoma. The risk of colorectal cancer was said to be reduced by about 20 percent with a vegetarian diet.
"This is all relatively unique information and possibly the most significant there is on cancers such as stomach and lymphatic cancer," Fraser said. "It could also be indicative of several other cancers, such as lung, ovarian and pancreatic cancer, where the results of this study suggest a lower risk in vegetarians, but don't reach the standard required to be more specific."
Fraser said that for other cancers such as uterine cancer, bone marrow cancer, myeloid leukemia and cancers of the nervous system, there is no evidence of dietary protection.
Background to the study
The study conducted by Loma Linda University examined data from tens of thousands of vegetarian and non-vegetarian Seventh-day Adventists. The researchers used data from the Adventist Health Study-2, a cohort of nearly 96,000 people who identify as Seventh-day Adventists and lived in the U.S. and Canada during the study's baseline recruitment between 2002 and 2007. The follow-up period extended through 2015, and this original cohort had already been the subject of more than 200 published studies on diet, health, disease and mortality.
The researchers used data from nearly 80,000 people in the study, about half of whom were vegetarians, Fraser said.
The study was funded by Loma Linda University. Funding for the establishment of the original cohort and its data was provided by the National Cancer Institute and the UK World Cancer Research Fund.
The researchers pointed out that the study included a comparison between vegetarian and non-vegetarian Adventists. This could indicate that the results are even more meaningful when compared to the general population.
Fraser said that previous studies comparing this population to the general population from a U.S. census indicate that non-vegetarian Adventists have about a 25 percent lower risk of all cancers than the general population. Among vegetarian Adventists, this risk is about 35 percent lower. "Many of the non-vegetarian Adventists in this study were very health-conscious people. So in some ways it's surprising that we found anything at all," says Fraser.
Pescetarians lower risk of bowel cancer
While the new study found an overall increased benefit for vegans compared to other vegetarian diets, there was one exception: a pescetarian diet (vegetarian diet with fish but without meat) showed a lower risk of colorectal cancer compared to other vegetarian diets.
Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.
Original publication
„Longitudinal Associations Between Vegetarian Dietary Habits and Site-Specific Cancers in the Adventist Health Study-2 North American Cohort“; American Journal of Clinical Nutrition .
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