Vegetarians 'avoid more cancers'

Vegetarians are generally less likely than meat eaters to develop cancer but this does not apply to all forms of the disease, a major study has found.

The study involving 60,000 people found those who followed a vegetarian diet developed notably fewer cancers of the blood, bladder and stomach.

But the apparently protective effect of vegetarian did not seem to stretch to bowel cancer, a major killer.

The study is published in the British Journal of Cancer.

Researchers from universities in the UK and New Zealand followed 61,566 British men and women. They included meat-eaters, those who ate fish but not meat, and those who ate neither meat nor fish.

About half of the participants were vegetarians

VEGETARIANS GOT NOTABLY FEWER OF THESE CANCERS:

Stomach

Bladder

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

Multiple myeloma