Eating meat five times or less per week is associated with a lower overall risk of

cancer

, according to a study by researchers at the

University of Oxford

.

The study, published Thursday in the journal

BMC Medicine

, is based on data from more than 472,000 British adults between 2006 and 2010. The participants, who were between the ages of 40 and 70, reported how often they ate meat and fish, and the researchers calculated the incidence of new cancers that developed over an average period of 11 years using health records.

They took into account

diabetes

status and

sociodemographic, socioeconomic, and lifestyle factors

in their analyses.

A total of 247,571 (52%) of the participants ate meat more than five times per week, 205,382 (44%) ate meat five or fewer times;

10,696 (2%) ate fish but not meat, and 8,685 (2%) were

vegetarian

or

vegan

.

The researchers found that the overall cancer risk was 2% lower among those who ate meat five or fewer times per week;

10% lower among those who ate fish but no meat, and 14% lower among vegetarians and vegans, compared with those who ate meat more than five times per week.

Comparing the incidence of specific cancers with the participants' diet, the authors found that those who ate meat five or fewer times per week had a 9% lower risk of colorectal cancer compared to those who ate more than five times per week.

They also found that the risk of

prostate cancer

was 20% lower among men who ate fish but not meat, and 31% lower among men who followed a vegetarian diet, compared with those who ate meat more than five times a week.

Postmenopausal

women

who followed a vegetarian diet had an 18% lower risk of

breast cancer

than those who ate meat more than five times a week.

However, the findings suggest this was because vegetarian women tended to have a lower body mass index than women who ate meat.

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