Low-meat and meat-free diets associated with lower overall cancer risk


Date:
February 24, 2022
Source:
BMC (BioMed Central)
Summary:
Eating meat five times or less per week is associated with a lower
overall cancer risk, according to two studies.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Eating meat five times or less per week is associated with a lower
overall cancer risk, according to a study published in the open access
journal BMC Medicine.


==========================================================================
Cody Watling and colleagues from the University of Oxford, UK investigated
the relationship between diet and cancer risk by analysing data collected
from 472,377 British adults who were recruited to the UK Biobank between
2006 and 2010. Participants, who were aged between 40 and 70 years,
reported how frequently they ate meat and fish and the researchers
calculated the incidence of new cancers that developed over an average
period of 11 years using health records. They accounted for diabetes
status and sociodemographic, socioeconomic and lifestyle factors in their analyses. 247,571 (52%) of participants ate meat more than five times per
week, 205,382 (44%) of participants ate meat five or less times per week, 10,696 (2%) ate fish but not meat, and 8,685 (2%) were vegetarian or
vegan. 54,961 participants (12%) developed cancer during the study period.

The researchers found that the overall cancer risk was 2% lower among
those who ate meat five times or less per week, 10% lower among those
who ate fish but not meat, and 14% lower among vegetarians and vegans,
compared to those who ate meat more than five times per week. When
comparing the incidence of specific cancers with participants' diet,
the authors found that those who ate meat five times or less per week
had a 9% lower risk of colorectal cancer, compared to those who ate
meat more than five times per week. They also found that the risk of
prostate cancer was 20% lower among men who ate fish but not meat and
31% lower among men who followed a vegetarian diet, compared to those
who ate meat more than five times per week. Post-menopausal women who
followed a vegetarian diet had an 18% lower risk of breast cancer than
those who ate meat more than five times per week. However, the findings
suggest that this was due to vegetarian women tending to have a lower
body mass index (BMI) than women who ate meat.

The researchers caution that the observational nature of their study
does not allow for conclusions about a causal relationship between diet
and cancer risk.

Additionally, as UK Biobank dietary data was collected at a single
time-point, rather than over a continuous period of time, it may not be representative of participants' lifetime diets.

The authors suggest that future research could investigate the
associations between diets containing little or no meat and the risk of individual cancers in larger populations with longer follow-up periods.

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may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Watling et al. Risk of cancer in regular and low meat-eaters, fish-
eaters, and vegetarians: a prospective analysis of UK Biobank
participants. BMC Medicine, 2022 DOI: 10.1186/s12916-022-02256-w ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220223202818.htm

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