In an observational study published in BMC Medicine, researchers from University of Oxford analyzed data from the UK Biobank of 472,377 adults between the ages of 40 to 70 years old from 2006 to 2010. Participants answered how frequently they ate meat. Using the data, researchers calculated the new cancer risks over an average of 11 years.

Their results, based on how many times participants ate meat over the week, show that the less meat you eat, less chance you would develop cancer overall. Compared to those who ate meat more than 5 times a week, eating less lead to a 2% lower risk of developing cancer, 10% lower for those who ate fish, and a whopping 14% less risk for those who were vegetarians or vegan.

Specifically for colon cancer, eating meat less than 5 times per week had a 9% less chance of colorectal cancer. In men, not eating meat at all lead to 31% decreased chance of developing prostate cancer. Men who ate fish had prostate cancer risk decreased by 20%, stark difference than eating no meat at all.

Be a good man and tell the ladies in your life, following a vegetarian diet lead to an 18% lower risk of breast cancer compared to those who ate meat more than 5 times per week. Also women who were vegetarian, also had a lower BMI (body mass index).

This large population study shows the clear importance of dumping meat from your diet and to adopt a vegetarian, plant-based diet and make the big difference in what your health will be like in a few years.

Not sure where men got the idea that eating meat is masculine, but last I check, chemical castration in the treatment of prostate cancer is the antithesis of masculinity. Real men eat plants, and lots of it.

CZ Watling et al. Risk of cancer in regular and low meat-eaters, fish-eaters, and vegetarians: a prospective analysis of UK Biobank participants. BMC Medicine. DOI: 10.1186/s12916-022-02256-w.