You've pointed out colorectal cancer here's a study by a team from Oxford....... I'm just guessing here but why wasn't the WHO aware of this study? Didn't they get the memo?
Cancer is not that far apart between vegetarians and nonvegetarians. And check out that last sentence......
I'll have my ribeye rare please.
Cancer risk in vegetarians
Key TJ, Appleby PN, Spencer EA, Travis RC, Roddam AW, Allen NE
Cancer Incidence in Vegetarians: results from the European Prospective Inverstigation into Cancer and Nutrition. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009; 89(5)1620S-1626S.
BACKGROUND: Few prospective studies have examined cancer incidence among vegetarians. OBJECTIVE: We report cancer incidence among vegetarians and nonvegetarians in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition-Oxford (EPIC-Oxford) study. DESIGN: This was a prospective study of 63,550 men and women recruited throughout the United Kingdom in the 1990s. Cancer incidence was followed through nationwide cancer registries. RESULTS: The standardized incidence ratio for all malignant neoplasms for all participants was 72% (95% CI: 69%, 75%). The standardized incidence ratios for colorectal cancer were 84% (95% CI: 73%, 95%) among nonvegetarians and 102% (95% CI: 80%, 129%) among vegetarians. Comparing vegetarians with meat eaters and adjusting for age, sex, and smoking, the incidence rate ratio for all malignant neoplasms was 0.89 (95% CI: 0.80, 1.00). The incidence rate ratio for colorectal cancer in vegetarians compared with meat eaters was 1.39 (95% CI: 1.01, 1.91). CONCLUSIONS: The overall cancer incidence rates of both the vegetarians and the nonvegetarians in this study are low compared with national rates.
Within the study, the incidence of all cancers combined was lower among vegetarians than among meat eaters, but the incidence of colorectal cancer was higher in vegetarians than in meat eaters.
http://www.epic-oxford.org/publicati...in-vegetarians