But the more peas and beans a person eats, the lower the risk of colon cancer, they found.
Genetic makeup can also affect a person's risk of colon cancer.
Singh and Fraser used information from the Adventist Health Study, which examines the health of 34,000 Seventh Day Adventists. They are supposed to follow a largely vegetarian diet, but many sometimes eat meat. Between 1977 and 1982 they found 157 cases of colon cancer in this group. Colon cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in the United States, after lung cancer. People who said they ate red meat once a week had a 38 percent higher risk of colon cancer than those who ate no meat.