Written by Kashmira Gander for the Independent
Leading a vegan lifestyle can cut the risk of prostate cancer by 35 per cent, a new study has suggested.
A vegan diet is void of all animal products and is instead based entirely on plant foods, including fruit, vegetables, nuts and grains.
The US researches behind the findings used data on over 26,000 men to study how omnivorous and plant-based diets affected the chances of developing prostate cancer.
In total, 1,079 cases of prostate cancer were reported in the group, with around 8 per cent of those in men with a vegan diet.
The researchers at Loma Linda University in California found a 35 per cent reduction in prostate cancer risk in men who followed a vegan diet, which they called “statistically significant”.
Professor Gary Fraser, who led the study funded by the World Cancer Research Fund, said: “This new research makes a significant step in linking a vegan diet to reduced prostate cancer risk.
He added that further research was needed to determine the extent to which such a lifestyle could reduce the number of men developing cancer.
Prostate cancer affects more men in the UK than any other form of the disease, with 47,000 new cases identified each year. Of these, over 10,000 men will die each year.
Dr Panagiota Mitrou, director of research funding at the WCRF, said that due to the high number of prostate cancer cases, prevention is the key to cutting the number of men developing the disease.
Click here to read the accompanying article, ‘How to be a healthy vegan‘, also written by Kashmira Gander for the Independent.
