VEG DIET CUTS COLON CANCER RISK

NEW YORK - Eating a meat-free, vegetarian diet may reduce the risk of
colorectal cancer, new research suggests. After following more than 10,000
people for 17 years, investigators found that vegetarians were 15 percent
less likely to develop colorectal cancer than meat-eaters.

This study adds to the "increasing scientific evidence" that a diet rich in
fruit, vegetables and fiber and low in meat--especially red and processed
meat--can prevent colorectal cancer, study author Dr. Miguel Sanjoaquin of
the University of Oxford, UK, told Reuters Health.

However, Sanjoaquin cautioned that only a small number of study
participants--95--developed colorectal cancer, making it impossible to
determine if fewer vegetarians developed cancer simply due to chance.
However, Sanjoaquin noted that a previous study featuring more cases of
colorectal cancer confirmed these findings, and he added that it makes
sense that eating vegetarian could cut cancer risk. The fat in red meat
increases the excretion of substances called bile acids, he explained,
which in turn produce other substances that encourage tumor growth.

Furthermore, meat contains natural compounds and substances formed
during processing and high-temperature cooking that can disrupt the
normal balance of cell growth in the colon, potentially triggering the
cancer, Sanjoaquin noted. Alternatively, substances in fruits and
vegetables--staples of the vegetarian diet--"may inhibit these adverse
effects," he added.

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