The report links eating meat to increased risk of various types of the disease, such as bowel, breast and prostate cancer, and found that vegetarians and vegans are 14 per cent less likely to develop a type of cancer.

The Oxford-based team looked at data sampling nearly half a million UK residents. They discovered that pescatarians - people who eat fish, dairy and eggs but not red meat and poultry - had a 10 per cent reduced risk of developing cancer. 

Researchers also compared people who consume animal flesh more than five times a week to those who eat comparatively small amounts, the latter group with a two per cent lower risk of developing cancer.

“In this large British cohort, being a low meat-eater, fish-eater or vegetarian was associated with a lower risk of all cancer sites when compared to regular meat-eaters,” the analysis found.

“The results […] suggest that specific dietary behaviours such as low meat [and] vegetarian or pescatarian diets can have an impact on reducing the risk of certain cancers; in this case bowel, breast and prostate,” Dr Giota Mitrou, director of research and innovation at World Cancer Research Fund International (WCRF), told the Guardian.

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People who eat meat less than five times per week had a nine per cent lower risk of developing bowel cancer, while vegetarian women had an 18 per cent lower chance of developing postmenopausal breast cancer than regular meat-eaters. Vegetarian men were also a third less likely to get prostate cancer.

Published today in the journal BMC Medicine, researchers said the results did not conclusively prove that eating red meat necessarily increases the risk of cancer, only that a decreased risk was associated with people who live a lifestyle that involves eating less flesh. 

Other factors such as smoking and body weight may also play a part, but this suggests that people who do not smoke and are not overweight, and so are objectively healthier, also tend to eat less meat.

To answer these questions, the researchers are now undertaking more in-depth research into vegetarians, pescatarians and vegans to look more closely at the links between diet and cancer.

Andrew Gough is Media and Investigations Manager for Surge.

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