Want to avoid cancer later in life?  Stop eating cows and pigs and chickens and sheep.  A new study says vegetarians have a 22 percent lower risk of the disease compared with meat-eaters.  But pesco-vegetarians – those who avoid meat but eat fish – were 43 percent less likely to get the cancer.

“We weren’t expecting the pesco-vegetarians to show the lowest risk,” said lead author Dr. Michael J. Orlich from Loma Linda University in California.  “But the finding for pescovegetarians, compared with nonvegetarians, was highly statistically significant, so this is very unlikely to be due to chance.”

Vegans, who eat no animal products at all, had only a 16 percent lower risk of bowel cancer.  The Loma Linda team says its findings ought to be considered by people making dietary choices.  The study was published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.