Long-term vegetarianism can lead to a genetic mutation that puts people at high risk for colon cancer and heart disease, according to a new study.

Cornell University researchers analyzed the gene sequences of vegetarians from India and meat eaters from the United States to find the results.

Indians with a heavy, vegetable-based diet developed a genetic variation, an “allele,” that leaves them vulnerable to killer heart and colon conditions, researchers said.

“The vegetarian allele evolved in populations that have eaten a plant-based diet over hundreds of generations … it may make people more susceptible to inflammation, and by association, increased risk of heart disease and colon cancer,” according to researchers, who published their findings in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.

Researchers examined gene patterns in 234 primarily vegetarian Indians and 311 meat-eating Americans.

The heart- and colon-threatening vegetarian allele was found in 68 percent of Indians and just 18 percent of Americans.

“In some places where there is a tradition of vegetarianism, one would expect they would be particularly susceptible to the deleterious effects with high amounts of omegas-6s (oils and fats associated with heart and colon disease) and that seems to be playing out quite rapidly,” said professor Tom Brenna, who authored the study with colleagues Kaixiong Ye and Alon Keinan.