I am a vegetarian, do not eat processed foods and exercise regularly. WHY was I and so many others diagnosed with colon cancer at a young age?

Laurie Koshers has been a vegetarian all her life, has run every day, and has never called in sick to work. So she doesn’t fit the profile of a cancer patient.

Yet in 2018, doctors told the North Carolinaan that there were “tumors everywhere” in her intestines and she was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer.

The mother of three was 44 at the time, much younger than the average age for this type of cancer to be diagnosed, which is 66. She also had no family history of the disease.

But she is one of a growing number of people being diagnosed with early-stage colon cancer, cases that occur in people under the age of 50. Doctors say the number of diagnoses is mysteriously increasing at an alarming rate.

While no definitive answer has yet been found, experts are increasingly pointing to ultra-processed foods and red meat, as well as obesity and low-fiber diets.

But doctors say patients like Ms. Koshers emphasize that other factors may be behind the increase.

Laurie Koshers, pictured above with two of her children, shared her story as part of the Colon Cancer Coalition’s series to raise awareness about the disease

Mrs. Koshers was active and ran every day. She also ate healthily and avoided meat.

Laurie said that during an interview with the charity The Colon Cancer Coalition.

She also said she never called in sick to work unless one of her children got sick.

Dr. Cedrek McFadden, a South Carolina oncologist who works with patients with early-stage colon cancer, is one of the doctors who no longer believes that obesity and red meat are the reason so many healthy young adults develop colon cancer.

He told DailyMail.com: ‘I suspect it’s an environmental factor, maybe there’s something in the environmental exposure – so before we’re 30 or 40 – that predisposes your body to it.’

According to him, this agent could be a pesticide or an additive in food, air pollution or even microplastics from food packaging.

He added: ‘What is astonishing to me and equally frustrating for them is that when it comes to risk factors for bowel cancer, we are talking about obesity, smoking and a diet high in red and processed meat.

‘But we are talking about patients who participate in running clubs, who follow a completely organic diet, sometimes even vegan, and who eat very few meat products.

‘There is some form of population exposure – sometime between the 1980s and early 2000s – that is causing this increase.

‘I think it has to do with what we eat or drink and how that changes our gut microbiome, although we haven’t fully elucidated that yet.

“It could be food additives or pesticides. But I definitely think there’s not going to be one culprit, it’s going to be more of a cumulative effect.

‘So too many parts per million or billion of a pesticide, combined with another additive and the combination of those, can lead to excessive mutations in the cells that cause cancer.’

Dr. Suneel Kamath, an oncologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, said red meat and processed foods were likely to blame for many cases, though he also felt other factors triggered the disease.

In 2018, Laurie began experiencing bloating and irregular bowel movements, but she blamed her gluten intolerance and aging.

After experiencing severe abdominal pain, she visited doctors who diagnosed her with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and a burst abscess.

It was only when she fell asleep in the bathroom and was rushed to the hospital that a large tumor was discovered in her colon.

Doctors surgically removed 12 inches of her colon and the tumor. They diagnosed her with stage three cancer and prescribed three months of chemotherapy.

But at her next check-up, she was told that the cancer was already stage four and had spread from her colon to several places in her abdominal cavity.

Doctors said they could see so many growths on her abdomen that it looked like someone had “taken a salt shaker and sprinkled cancer all over her body.”

Now she is participating in a clinical trial at Duke University. While the drugs will not eradicate the cancer, they are expected to slow it down, allowing her to spend more time with her family.

In a similar situation, 72-year-old Irena Aistrop from Florida, who has also been a vegetarian all her life, was diagnosed with colon cancer in July.

She announced her diagnosis in a Facebook post, writing: ‘I still find it hard to believe that as a vegetarian, and mostly vegan, I could get colon cancer. This is why I have always avoided a colonoscopy.

‘[But now] I’m sorry that I was so stupid and… I ask you all to make an appointment for a colonoscopy if you are over 45 or have not had one yet.’

Mrs Aistrop was diagnosed in early July and underwent surgery in August to remove the tumour discovered in her colon, which had not spread.

Ms Aistrop, pictured above, said she didn’t think she could get cancer because of her diet choices

Much research has been done into the possible causes of the epidemic of colon cancer in young adults.

A number of studies have shown a link between eating ‘too much sugar’ and not enough fibre, which researchers say accelerates the ageing of intestinal cells and makes them more susceptible to cancer.

Others have even suggested that older siblings may pose a higher risk, as they expose children to disease earlier and can cause inflammation in the gut, making them more susceptible to cancer later in life.

Previously, doctors have suggested that red meat and diets high in processed foods are to blame for the rise. A 2015 Harvard paper found that vegetarians had a 22 percent lower risk of colon cancer than meat eaters, while a 2023 meta-analysis of eight studies found they had a 23 percent lower risk.

Other studies have also focused on red meat. For example, one study found that eating half a steak a day for six years can increase the risk of colon cancer by a fifth.

However, experts are skeptical about the research.

Many studies on red meat fail to highlight that people who eat a lot of red meat often don’t get enough essential fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, which can put them at greater risk for health problems. Vegetables are high in fiber, which is essential for healthy digestion.

A 2020 study published in Cambridge University Press found that meat eaters are more likely to be overweight or obese than vegetarians.

Irena Aistrop from Florida was a vegetarian and sometimes vegan her entire life, so she was shocked when she was diagnosed with colon cancer

Numerous high-quality studies have shown that, regardless of diet, excess weight—particularly around the waist—can increase the risk of a variety of cancers, including colorectal and stomach cancer. It is therefore difficult to determine precisely whether meat or another part of lifestyle causes cancer.

Researchers from the University of Missouri-Kansas City found that colorectal cancer rates increased 500 percent in children ages 10 to 14 and 333 percent in teens ages 15 to 19.

The researchers looked at colorectal cancer rates in children and adults aged 10 to 44 and found that the number of cases had increased across all age groups.

The study also found that the rate of colorectal cancer increased by 71 percent to 6.5 cases of colorectal cancer per 100,000 people in the 30- to 34-year-old age group over the past two decades. In 2020, the rate of colorectal cancer increased by 58 percent to 11.7 cases per 100,000 in the 35- to 39-year-old age group.

Officials are now beginning to order new studies to find out what is behind this growing trend.