Vegan Diet Correlates with Lower Rates of Cancer in New Research at Loma Linda University

by AT News Team

New research soon to be published shows a significant correlation with a vegan diet and lower rates of cancer. Also, lacto-ovo vegetarian diets “seem to confer protection from cancers of the gastrointestinal tract,” says an article by a research team at Loma Linda University (LLU) to be published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.
 
The article releases some of the early findings from the Adventist Health Study 2. “Cancer risk among vegetarians compared to non-vegetarians was statistically significant for both genders combined. Also, a statistically significant association was found between vegetarian diet and cancers of the gastrointestinal tract.” When data for the two types of vegetarian diets were compared, “vegan diets showed statistically significant protection for overall cancer incidence in both genders combined and for female-specific cancers [and] lacto-ovo vegetarians [were] associated with decreased risk of cancers of the gastrointestinal system.”
 
Cancer is the number two cause of death in the United States and diet accounts for about a third of all cancers in Western nations. Because Seventh-day Adventists make up one of the largest populations in the U.S. following a vegetarian diet, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have funded ongoing research to understand how Adventist lifestyle relates to preventing disease and longer life. A total of 69,120 Adventists participated in this study.

The NIH recently renewed funding for the Adventist Health Study 2, extending the project for five more years with a grant of $5.5 million. "We're delighted by this," said Dr. Fraser, team leader for the study. The additional funding will not only allow the project to conduct ongoing research, but also begin analysis on questions it has not had the resources to examine to date, he stated.
 
The publication in which this article will appear is a peer-reviewed science journal sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research. The authors of the article include Drs. Yessenia Tantamango-Bartley, Karen Jaceldo-Siegl,  Joseph Fan and Gary Fraser, faculty members at LLU.