A new study into the effects of various dietary habits has concluded that vegetarians are 45 per cent less likely than meat-eaters to develop cancer of the blood, a potentially ground-breaking discovery for the fresh produce trade.
The investigation, which has been published in the British Journal of Cancer and which forms part of the on-going European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (Epic), also found that vegetarians were 12 per cent less likely than carnivores to develop any form of the disease.
Based on a study of 61,000 people over the course of 12 years, scientists led by Naomi Allen of the Oxford University Cancer Research UK epidemiology unit discovered that, of the 3,350 participants diagnosed with cancer, 68 per cent ate meat, 24 per cent were vegetarians and 9.5 per cent ate fish but not meat.
Of those, 180 carnivores contracted a cancer of the blood (for example leukaemia, multiple myeloma or non-Hodgkin lymphoma), compared with 49 vegetarians and 28 fish-eaters.
Incidence of stomach and bladder cancer was also much lower in vegetarians compared with meat-eaters, the study reported, but for bowel cancer the risk for vegetarians was found to be slightly above what it was for those who regularly ate meat.
However, Ms Allen told The Guardian that people should be cautious when trying to interpretat the findings. 'It is a significant difference, but we should be a bit cautious since it is the first study showing that the risk of cancer of the blood is lower in vegetarians,' she said. 'We need to know what aspect of a fish and vegetarian diet is protecting against cancer. Is it the higher fibre intake, higher intake of fruit and vegetables, is it just meat per se?'
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