More and more people have been dropping meat and animal products from their diet in recent years - whether because they believe it's more ethical, good for the planet, or better for their health. In fact, some have even claimed that a vegetarian or vegan diet can prevent cancer, or cure it. We explain why current research tells us that this isn't true.
Currently, there is not enough evidence to definitively say that a vegetarian or vegan diet reduces the risk of dying of cancer.
There is some evidence that abstaining from meat might help to prevent certain types of cancer from occurring in the first place, however several meta-analyses on this effect have failed to show a clear answer to this question and more research will be needed.
Other studies have found that people eating a vegetarian or vegan diet may be less likely to present other health risks, such as high blood pressure of cholesterol, which are implicated in many health conditions.
Research into what we eat and how it affects our risk of cancer is always going to be difficult and needs to be carefully interpreted. Researchers need to consider several other factors before they can draw a clear line between a cause and effect like a specific diet and your risk of illness.
This can include how old a person is, how much they weigh, their drinking and smoking habits, and if the exercise regularly. Even where a person lives can make a difference!
Plus, cancer can take decades to develop, which means you have to keep tabs on many (sometimes thousands) of people over the course of several years.
So it’s easy to see why there are often no clear-cut results. Another big caveat for these studies is that most rely on people self-reporting, often over a long period of time – can you trust that everyone will tell the whole truth about what they’re eating?
It’s also worth remembering that vegetarianism and veganism have only recently burst into the mainstream. While more people than ever are choosing to change the way they eat, there simply aren’t enough people who have eaten these diets for a long enough period of time to gather any meaningful data on the long-term effects of these eating styles.
It could well be that we need to wait for several more years - or even decades - until we grasp the effects of life-long plant-based diets on cancer risk.
So what should I eat - or avoid?
There are many reasons a person might decide to eat a plant-based diet and we are not here to judge this decision either way. Our current understanding of how the food we eat impacts on health suggests eating a healthy, balanced diet of plenty of fruit and vegetables, whole grains, and healthy sources of protein, such as beans or chicken.
The diet should avoid anything high in sugar, salt and fat, and be low in processed/ultra-processed meat (which can cause bowel cancer) and red meat (which has been found to increase the risk of bowel cancer). Cantonese-style salted fish has also been found to increase the risk of nasopharyngeal cancer, a type of head and neck cancer.
The evidence for white meats is not as clear cut and studies suggest that eating some white meat and fish might reduce your risk of some cancers.
Generally, the Mediterranean diet, which is mostly plant-based but includes moderate amounts of seafood, dairy, and poultry, and red meats and sweets on occasion, is well-supported as a way to eat healthily.
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