Studies have shown that a plant-based diet can reduce the chance of suffering from a variety of cancer types by up to 40%. This was the result of a 13-year study of 11,000 people conducted at Oxford University (1995). The National Cancer Research Institute in Tokyo has concluded that women who consume meat and dairy products have almost a four times greater risk of getting breast cancer than those who don’t.

Breast cancer

Breast cancer is the most common cancer-related death among women in most of the Western world and the leading cause of death of women under 50. Dairy products are high in fat, animal protein and hormones, each of which increases the risk of this cancer.

An Italian study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, revealed that breast cancer risks increased with the consumption of animal fat and protein, most significantly with dairy products.

The American Dietetic Association reports that breast cancer is most prevalent in countries where women consume high fat, animal-based diets. In Southeast Asia, where milk consumption is rare, breast cancer is uncommon. Internationally renowned nutrition expert Dr T Colin Campbell points to China, a previously non-milk drinking country, where cancer deaths among women aged 35 to 64 averaged less than 9 per 100,000, as opposed to 44 per 100,000 in the US. Japanese women who follow a more meat and dairy-based diet are eight times more likely to develop breast cancer than their counterparts who eat a plant-based diet.

Researchers at Stanford University and the National Institutes of Health found that the high concentrations of the IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor) in milk stimulate cancer cell growth. IGF-1 levels further increase in milk from cows treated with synthetic bovine growth hormone (rBGH).  More recently ovarian cancer has also been linked with dairy consumption.

Prostate cancer

Prostate cancer in men is equally linked to dairy. According to the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research, 11 separate human population studies have tied dairy consumption to prostate cancer. Results of the Physicians’ Health Study of 20,885 doctors showed that men who consumed at least 2.5 servings of dairy foods daily were about 30 % more likely to develop prostate cancer than men who averaged less than half a serving per day. A study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, found that levels of IGF-1 that play a key role in causing prostate cancer were 9 % lower in vegans than in non-vegans.

Intestinal Cancer

Low fibre foods like milk and meat contribute significantly to intestinal cancer.