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shVegetarians 'avoid more cancers' 素食主义者可以避免很多癌症
Vegetarians2 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 vegetarian1 diet developed notably(显著的) fewer cancers of the blood, bladder(膀胱) and stomach.
But the apparently(显然,似乎) protective effect of vegetarian did not seem to stretch to bowel3 (肠)cancer, a major killer4.
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.
Overall, their results suggested that while in the general population about 33 people in 100 will develop cancer during their lifetime, for those who do not eat meat that risk is reduced to about 29 in 100.
Special protection?
The researchers said they found marked differences between meat-eaters and vegetarians in the propensity5 (倾向,习性)to cancers of the lymph(淋巴) and the blood, with vegetarians just over half as likely to develop these forms of the disease.
In the case of multiple myeloma(多发性骨髓瘤), a relatively6 rare cancer of the bone marrow7(骨髓), vegetarians were 75% less likely to develop the disease than meat-eaters.
The reduction was less notable for fish-eaters with these cancers. The reasons, researchers said, were unclear, but potential mechanisms8 could include viruses and mutation-causing compounds in meat - or alternatively that vegetables confer special protection.
There were also striking differences in rates of stomach cancer. Although the numbers of cases were small, fish-eaters and vegetarians were about a third as likely to develop the disease as meat-eaters.
Previous research has already implicated9 processed meats in stomach cancer, so these findings were not entirely10 surprising. It is thought N-nitroso compounds found in these meats may damage DNA11, while the high temperatures they are cooked at may also produce carcinogens. (致癌物)
But the same reduction for vegetarians was not found with cancers of the bowel, one of the most common forms of the disease.
Meanwhile the relative risk for fish-eaters and vegetarians of cervical cancer (宫颈癌)was twice that of meat-eaters. The number of cases was small, and could be down to chance but the researchers said it was possible that dietary factors influenced the virus behind cervical cancer.
Professor Tim Key, the lead author, said it was impossible to draw strong conclusions from this one single study.
"At the moment these findings are not strong enough to ask for particularly large changes in the diets of people following an average balanced diet."
'Complex process'
A spokesperson for Cancer Research UK, which funded the research, said: "These interesting results add to the evidence that what we eat affects our chances of developing cancer. We know that eating a lot of red and processed meat increases the risk of stomach cancer.
"But the links between diet and cancer risk are complex and more research is needed to see how big a part diet plays and which specific dietary factors are most important.
Myeloma UK said this was the first data of its kind for the bone marrow cancer "and for that reason we are treating it with caution.
"Dietary advice to myeloma patients remains12 aligned13 with national guidance - that they should eat a healthy, balanced diet high in fibre, fruit and vegetables and low in saturated14 fat, salt and red and processed meat."
Dr Panagiota Mitrou, Science and Research Programme Manager for the World Cancer Research Fund, said: "The suggestion that vegetarians might be at reduced risk of blood cancers is particularly interesting.
"However, this finding should be treated with caution since not much is known about the link between diet and these types of cancer. Further studies of vegetarians are needed before we can be confident this is actually the case." (本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑)
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1 vegetarian | |
n.素食者;adj.素食的 | |
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2 vegetarians | |
n.吃素的人( vegetarian的名词复数 );素食者;素食主义者;食草动物 | |
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3 bowel | |
n.肠(尤指人肠);内部,深处 | |
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4 killer | |
n.杀人者,杀人犯,杀手,屠杀者 | |
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5 propensity | |
n.倾向;习性 | |
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6 relatively | |
adv.比较...地,相对地 | |
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7 marrow | |
n.骨髓;精华;活力 | |
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8 mechanisms | |
n.机械( mechanism的名词复数 );机械装置;[生物学] 机制;机械作用 | |
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9 implicated | |
adj.密切关联的;牵涉其中的 | |
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10 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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11 DNA | |
(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸 | |
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12 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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13 aligned | |
adj.对齐的,均衡的 | |
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14 saturated | |
a.饱和的,充满的 | |
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