Scientific Power of the Vegetarian Diet

Here are the basic epidemiological facts: Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide; there are approximately fifteen million new cases and eight million cancer-related deaths a year. The number of new cases is expected to continue rising about 70 percent over the next two decades. In the United States alone there were 1,685,210 new cases and nearly six hundred thousand died from the disease last year. In addition to the enormous personal costs of these deadly diseases, cancer is one of the most expensive medical conditions to treat, depending of course on the availability of treatments.

Going vegetarian protects people against many, if not most, cancers as scientists’ estimate that between 40 and 70 percent of cancer is related to diet. As with heart disease, no one knows for certain whether the protection offered by a plant-based diet is the result of the increased vegetables or the absence of meat—no doubt it is both.

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Lately, though there is more evidence coming down on the side of the absence of meat. This could be partly owing to the well-established connection between cancer rates and obesity or it could be the complex negative biochemistry brought by meat in our diet[1]. Meat, as we shall see, is now a poisoned food.

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In other words, while vegetables are an important part of a healthy diet and plant foods contain myriad nutrients, and many of these are potent anti-carcinogens, it appears that meat consumption, obesity and cancer all go together. So much so that in 2015, the American Cancer Society published recommendations that cancer survivors should follow plant-based diets that are high in fruits, vegetables and unrefined grains while at the same time avoiding red and processed meats, refined grains, and sugars. Its report states, “These diets are contrasted to ‘Western’ diets,’ which have the opposite pattern and are heavy in meats, sweets, other processed foods, and dietary fat.”

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Some larger international studies on vegetarians and cancer rates support this: The Oxford Vegetarian Study found cancer mortality to be 39 percent lower among vegetarians when compared to meat-eaters[2]. A long-term, ongoing study that began in the 1960s of the largely vegetarian Seventh Day Adventists conducted by Loma Linda University has found cancer mortality rates to be much lower than those of the general population for several cancer sites unrelated to smoking or alcohol consumption. The European Prospective Investigation of Cancer found that vegetarians suffer 40 percent fewer cancers than the general population. Bottom line: based on hundreds of international dietary studies, the World Cancer Research Fund’s and the World Health Organization’s dietary advice urge people to reduce the intake of dietary fat and meats while increasing the consumption of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, or in other words— go vegetarian.

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Now let’s zoom in for a close up look at the effect of diet on some devastating types of cancer.

 

“Insecticides, fecal contamination, pesticides, products used in paint and preservation of wood, hormones, and animal drugs all turn up in meat.”

—Carol Tucker Foreman, former Assistant U.S. Secretary of Agriculture

 

Zooming in on Breast Cancer:

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Worldwide, approximately million women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, which accounts for about a quarter of all women’s cancer cases. Incidence rates vary considerably, but the highest rates of breast cancer occur in countries that consume the most meat, and this is no coincidence. While the etiology of all cancers, especially breast cancer, is complex, to prevent breast cancer or to stop its devastating progression, going vegetarian provides a meaningful measure of protection.

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 The British Department of Health conducted a large-scale analysis of ten cohort studies on breast cancer and dietary factors and found an elevated risk for breast cancer in meat eaters. The more meat one consumes, the greater the risk; women who ate meat every day were at the highest risk[3]. Scientists at the Cornell University Program of Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors examined fifteen recent studies of meat consumption and breast cancer, twelve of which demonstrated that meat consumption affects the risk of contracting breast cancer. Indeed, the association between meat consumption and breast cancer risk was dramatic in many of these studies. Like the previous analysis, a number of these studies showed that the quantity of meat consumed affects breast cancer risk, and the less meat a woman eats, the lower is her risk of ever contracting this disease.

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This is also born out in epidemiological studies. Breast cancer rates are dramatically lower in nations (such as China) that follow plant-based diets. But in the last decade or so, as Chinese women begin to follow western countries in consuming more meat, breast cancer rates are rising proportionately. Similarly, Japanese women who follow a Western-style, meat-based diet are eight times more likely to develop breast cancer than women who follow a more traditional, plant-based diet.

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Here is a life-saving note: Countless studies have also shown that decreasing a woman’s animal fat intake dramatically reduces the chances that she will die from breast cancer. In other words, if you are struggling to overcome breast cancer, GO VEGETARIAN! It boosts your chances of surviving. This is an amazing fact that definitely deserves more publicity.

 

Zooming in on Prostrate Cancer

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Here’s another big one—prostate cancer. After skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer and the second leading cause of cancer deaths among men in the United States, Europe, and throughout much of the rest of the world. Studies show fifty percent of men between 70 and 80 show histological evidence of prostrate cancer malignancy. And, as with so many other cancers, a vegetarian diet plays a definitive role in prevention and even treatment.

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In 2016 scientists at Loma Linda University in California looked at over 26,000 men to assess the link between prostate cancer and various types of diet, including non-vegetarian, pescatarian and vegan diets. The study found that those with a vegan diet had a 35% reduced risk of prostate cancer.

This new research is supported by previous large studies. For instance, a large, long-term study in the Netherlands found a powerful connection between a number of animal fats consumed and the rate of prostate cancer[4] as did a 1993 review of a dozen studies.[5] Other scientists conducted a thorough review of the scientific research on risk factors involved in prostate cancer and reached the same conclusion: The less fat from meat a man consumes, the lower his chances of getting prostate cancer.[6]

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Which can only mean this: Most studies have found that the more fruits and vegetables a man consumes, the less chance there is of him getting prostate cancer.[7] And, like breast cancer, studies reveal that once a man is diagnosed with prostate cancer, his survival rate increases if he goes vegetarian—even a reduction of animal fats will increase his survival rate.[8]

 

Zooming in on Colon Cancer

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A plant-based diet also strongly affects intestinal cancers. International studies have measured the consumption of animal fats and rates of intestinal cancers, and these all have found that the more animal fat we consume, the higher the rate of these devastating diseases. The latest research found that meat eating increases your chance of contracting colon cancer by a whopping 50 percent[9]. Add obesity to the picture, and the odds of contacting these diseases goes up even more.

 

“How good it is to be well fed, healthy, and kind all at the same time.”

—Dr. Henry Heimlich, inventor of the Heimlich Maneuver

 

Zooming in on Other Types of Cancers:

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Let’s just go through them:

Dr. Dean Edell, the popular radio physician, reports that a vegetarian smoker has less chance of getting lung cancer than a nonsmoking meat eater. Even controlling for smoking, vegetarians have much lower rates of lung cancer.[10]

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Additionally, esophageal, ovarian, uterine, and endometrial cancers have all been shown to correlate slightly to the amount of animal fat in one’s diet, and vegetarian women have significantly lower rates of these cancers.[11]

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Is there any ailment that a plant-based diet doesn’t protect from?

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We are still looking….

 

“In my view, no chemical carcinogen is nearly so important in causing human cancer as animal protein.”

—Dr. T. Colin Campbell, author, The China Health Study

 

[1] Pan, A., Sun, Q., Bernstein, A.M., Schulze, M.B., Manson, J.E., Stampfer, M.J., Willett, W.C., Hu, F.B. (2012). Red Meat Consumption and Mortality Results From 2 Prospective Cohort Studies. Archives of Internal Medicine. 172(7):555-563.

[2] Appleby, P.N., Key, T.J., Fraser, G.E., Thorogood, M., Beral, V., Reeves, G., Burr, M.L., Chang-Claude, J., Frentzel-Beyme, R., Kuzma, J.W., Mann, J., McPherson, K. (1999). Mortality in vegetarians and nonvegetarians: detailed findings from a collaborative analysis of 5 prospective studies. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 70(3 Suppl):516S-524S.

[3]

[4] Schuurman, A.G., van den Brandt, P.A., Dorant, E., Goldbohm, R.A. (1999). Animal products, calcium and protein and prostate cancer risk in The Netherlands Cohort Study. British Journal of Cancer. 80:1107–1113.

[5] Giovannucci, E., Rimm, E.B., Colditz, G.A., Stampfer, M.J., Ascherio, A., Chute, C.G., Willett, W.C. (1993). A prospective study of dietary fat and risk of prostate cancer. The Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 85(19):1571-9.

[6] Pienta, K.J., Esper, P.S. (1993). Risk factors for prostate cancer. Annals of Internal Medicine. 118(10):793-803.

[7] Cohen, J.H., Kristal, A.R., Stanford, J.L. (2000). Fruit and Vegetable Intakes and Prostate Cancer Risk. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 1(5): 61–68.

[8] Meyer, F., Fradet, Y., Bairati, I., Shadmani, R., Moore, L. (1999). Dietary fat and prostate cancer progression and survival. European Urology. 35(5-6):388-91.

[9] Chao, A., Thun, M.J., Connell, C.J., McCullough, M.L., Jacobs, E.J., Flanders, W.D., Rodriguez, C., Sinha, R., Calle, E.E. (2005). Meat consumption and risk of colorectal cancer. The Journal of the American Medical Association. 293(2):172-82.

[10] Deneo-Pellegrini, H., De Stefani, E., Ronco, A., Mendilaharsu, M., Carzoglio, J.C. (1996). Meat consumption and risk of lung cancer; a case-control study from Uruguay. Lung Cancer. 14(2-3):195-205.

[11] Risch, H.A., Jain, M., Marrett, L.D., Howe, G.R. (1994). Dietary Fat Intake and Risk of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 86(18): 1409–1415.