Washington, July 20 : Vegetarians rejoice! Love thy food, as a new UK study has found that they are at a significantly lowered risk of developing a common bowel disease.

Dr Francesca Crowe and her team from the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford found that vegetarians are a third less likely to get a common bowel disorder (diverticular disease) than their meat-eating counterparts.

The condition, characterised by painful abdominal cramps, bloating, gas, constipation and diarrhoea, affects the large bowel or colon and is thought to be caused by not consuming enough fibre.

Previous research has suggested that a low fibre diet could lead to diverticular disease, and that vegetarians may have a lower risk compared with meat eaters, but there was little evidence to substantiate it.

Crowe and her team looked at 47,033 British adults, of whom 15,459 were vegetarians.

After an average follow-up of 11.6 years, there were 812 cases of diverticular disease. Vegetarians in the group had a 30 percent lower risk of having diverticular disease, compared to those who ate meat, fish or both.

Consuming a vegetarian diet and a high intake of dietary fibre are both associated with a lower risk of diverticular disease, said the authors.

The study is published on bmj. com. (ANI)