Vegetarian Diets Linked to 12% Lower Overall Cancer Risk in Study of North American Adventists

Vegetarian diets are linked to a 12% lower risk of cancer overall, according to a new analysis of the Adventist Health Study-2. Colorectal cancer risk was 21% lower, stomach cancer 45% lower and lymphoproliferative cancers, such as lymphoma, 25% lower.

Loma Linda University researchers led by Professor Gary Fraser followed 79,468 cancer-free Seventh-day Adventists in the US and Canada who joined between 2002 and 2007, matching them with cancer registries. The study is published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The vegetarian groups also had 18% lower risk of medium-frequency cancers as a group, and, Fraser says, vegans had about 25% lower risk of breast and prostate cancer. Because the comparison group were mostly health-conscious Adventists themselves, the gap with the general population is likely bigger.

Professor Fraser said in the Loma Linda University release:

Many of those non-vegetarian Adventist people in this study were still very health-conscious people, so in some ways, it's amazing that we found anything at all.

Beans, whole grains, fruit and veg, every day.

A UK Biobank study linked vegetarian diets to 14% lower cancer risk, and last year Adventist researchers linked vegetarian diets to half the risk of dying from kidney failure and diabetes.

Another win for plants!