The purposes of this study were to investigate the characteristics of lifestyle and dietary habits of the colorectal cancer patients in Daegu and Kyungpook areas and to collect the data useful for nutrition education for the prevention of colorectal cancer in this community. The case subjects of the study were 123 patients diagnosed recently as colorectal cancer at Kyungpook National University Hospital. The control subjects were 182 persons who did not have any gastrointestinal diseases, including the patients from the department of orthopedic surgery and healthy volunteers. The survey covering general characteristics, life style, dietary habits, eating behaviors, and food intake frequency was administered by individual interviews using questionnaires. The results of the study suggest that high BMI, daily life stress, pessimistic personality, lack of physical activities, and familial cancer history might be the possible risk factors for the incidence of colorectal cancer. Dietary factors suspected as risk factors for colorectal cancer in the present study included strong preferences to meats, salty and fatty taste foods, low intake of water, alcohol drinking, smoking, coffee intake and irregular eating habits. A high consumption of seaweeds, green-yellow vegetables, light-colored vegetables, and green tea was suggested as a preventive factor for colorectal cancer. It is recommended to conduct more extensive and systematic surveys in the near future to reconfirm the risk factors of colorectal cancer in consideration of the characteristic food culture in this community. The results of the present study may be applied to nutritional education for the prevention of colorectal cancer for the local residents. (Korean J Nutrition 38(2): 125～143, 2005)