Pescetarian Diet May Lower Your Risk Of Bowel Cancer, New Study Finds

Eating a pescetarian diet may lower your risk of bowel cancer according to a new study.

People who ate fish and vegetables - but no meat - were 43% less likely to develop colon or rectal cancer, according to research from Loma Linda University in California.

The researchers examined the diets of more than 77,000 people over the course of seven years. They also found that vegetarians had a 20% lower risk, and for vegans the risk was reduced by 16%.

Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK, after breast, lung and prostate cancer. Around 41,600 people are diagnosed with disease each year, with a slightly higher rate in men.

In the last year alone it has claimed the lives of Simpson's co-creator Sam Simon, Loose Women presenter Lynda Bellingham and Stephen Sutton, the teenager who raised £4.5 million for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

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The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), which funded the study, currently advises that garlic, diets high in fibre, high-calcium diets and increased physical activity are associated with a decreased risk of bowel cancer.

The WCRF guidelines were drawn up in 2011 at which point they concluded that the evidence on the relationship between fish and bowel cancer risk was limited and inconclusive.

They will no doubt take this latest study into account when they next update their guidelines, but it's worth keeping in mind that at the moment fish is not among their recommendations, especially as NHS Choices have pointed out some limitations of the Loma Linda study.

The subjects of the study all came from one very specific population group - North American Seventh Day Adventists, and the researchers relied on very loose definitions of vegans, vegetarians and pescatarians - which included people who ate meat less than once a month.

"This study will contribute to the body of evidence on dietary risk associated with different food types," states the NHS Choices' report. "But on its own it does not prove that fish consumption decreases the risk of bowel cancer."

However, the healthy credentials of fish are without doubt, and according to Public Health England average consumption of oily fish in the UK is well below the recommended one portion (140g) per week . So it is still a wise move to befriend your local fishmonger.

Things That Lower Colorectal Cancer Risk

Eat Fiber From Whole Grains (01 of08)

Researchers from Britain and the Netherlands found that the more total dietary fiber and cereal fiber people consumed, the lower their colorectal cancer risk. For example, people who consumed an extra 90 grams of whole grains a day also had a 20 percent lower risk of colorectal cancer, according to the British Medical Journal review.However, that same study didn't show a link between eating fiber from fruits and vegetables and a lowered colorectal cancer risk, meaning there may be something else in whole grains at work, too. (credit:Shutterstock)

Take Aspirin (02 of08)

Researchers from the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands found that people who take aspirin once a day have a 30 percent decreased risk of dying from colorectal cancer, if taken for at least a nine-month period.And, the benefit extended to after a person had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer. The researchers found that people who had already been diagnosed and who took aspirin had a 23 percent decreased risk of dying from the disease, compared with people who didn't take it at all. (credit:Shutterstock)

Eat Chocolate (Maybe) (03 of08)

The Daily Mail reported on a study in mice, published in the journal Molecular Nutrition and Food Research, showing that rats exposed to a carcinogen developed fewer colon cancer lesions than rats if they consumed high-cocoa diets. "Being exposed to different poisons in the diet like toxins, mutagens and procarcinogens, the intestinal mucus is very susceptible to pathologies," study researcher Maria Angeles Martin Arribas, a researcher at the Institute of Food Science and Technology and Nutrition, said in a statement. "Foods like cocoa, which is rich in polyphenols, seems to play an important role in protecting against disease."However, it's important to note that this effect was tested only on mice. (credit:Shutterstock)

Consume Ginger Root (04 of08)

Research published in the journal Cancer Prevention Research showed that taking 2 grams of ginger root supplement every day might have colon cancer-preventing powers. The researchers from the University of Michigan Medical School found that taking ginger root supplements helped to minimize signs of inflammation of the colon, which has been connected to colon cancer. (credit:Shutterstock)

Go To A Classical Music-Loving Doctor (05 of08)

A study from the University of Texas Health Science Center showed that doctors who conduct colonoscopies while listening to Mozart are more likely to find polyps, which can lead to colon cancer, ABC News reported. The study showed that polyp-detection increased to 36.7 percent from 27.16 percent when the doctors listened to Mozart. (credit:Shutterstock)

Exercise Regularly (06 of08)

A study in the journal Cancer Causes & Control showed that people who exercise or play sports five or more times a week can lower their risk of developing colorectal cancer, compared with those who don't exercise regularly (or at all), Johns Hopkins University reported.

Why exercise might reduce colon cancer risk isn't well understood. It may be because exercise enhances the immune system or because it reduces levels of insulin and insulin-like growth factors, all of which have been associated with colon cancer risk.

(credit:Shutterstock)

Eat Your Veggies (07 of08)

A number of studies have linked the consumption of cruciferous vegetables with a decreased risk of colorectal cancer, Oregon State University reported, though the effect may depend on a person's genetic risk.In particular, a study published in 2000 in the American Journal of Epidemiology, showed that people who ate the most cruciferous veggies in a day (about 58 grams per day, on average) had a lower risk of colon cancer compared with people who ate the fewest cruciferous veggies in a day (about 11 grams per day, on average), Oregon State University reported. (credit:Shutterstock)

Enjoy Some Berries (Maybe) (08 of08)

A study in mice showed that compounds called anthocyanins, found in black raspberries, seem to have powers at anti-colorectal cancer powers, MyHealthNewsDaily reported. The berries may help to prevent cancer because of their "high antioxidant activity," study researcher Gary Stoner, of the College of Medicine at Ohio State University, told MyHealthNewsDaily; those antioxidants work to fight against DNA-damaging free radicals in the body. (credit:Shutterstock)

Colon Cancer bowel cancer Colorectal cancer cancer prevention Diet

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