Want to give yourself the best chance of never getting colon cancer? Recent research has very persuasively added to the abundant evidence that vegetarian diets prevent colon cancer. And now, a new study adds even more evidence that, if you don’t want to get colon cancer, you might not want to eat meat . . . .
Lots of evidence from Western countries proves that eating meat increases your risk of colorectal cancer. Less research has been done in Japan. Japanese researchers set out to even the scales.
The study included 13,957 men and 16,374 women who were 35 or older when the study started. Over the 16 years of the study, 429 men and 343 women developed colorectal cancer. But men who ate the most meat were a significant 36% more likely to get colorectal cancer than men who ate the least. Men who ate the most red meat were a significant 44% more likely. Eating processed meat was also associated with increased risk of colorectal cancer. For women, the association was not significant, perhaps, the researchers say, because there was a lower intake of meat in women than in men.
When fish and shell fish were considered separately, men who ate the most were 29% more likely and women 48% more likely to develop colorectal cancer.
Less meat is consumed in Japan, so, compared to Western populations, the people who ate the most meat in this study may still be eating relatively less meat. So, the results could be even more frightening in the West.
Cancer Sci 2017;108(5):1065-1070
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