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Thread: Cancer, adaptation and the definition of 'omnivores'

  1. #1
    Ex-admin Korn's Avatar
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    Default Cancer, adaptation and the definition of 'omnivores'

    Some claim that humans are more or less perfectly 'adapted' to consuming animal products, or that we are more 'adapted' to eating an omnivorous diet consisting of eggs, meat and dairy products than we are to eating a vegan diet. Some of these link suggest something else...



    Skim Milk / Lo-Fat Milk Linked to Prostate Cancer
    Remarkable Cancer Recovery on the Raw Vegan Diet
    Cancer: Why We're Losing the War
    Who should become vegan: Cancer prevention
    Vegan diet 'cuts prostate cancer risk'
    Vegan diet and breast cancer risk - Scientific update
    Vegan proteins may reduce risk of cancer, obesity, and cardiovascular disease by promoting increased glucagon activity.
    Going vegan: Cancer forced a life change.(The Providence Journal)
    Very-Low-Fat Vegan Diet May Offer Cancer Protection
    Vegan diet taught as cancer deterrent
    On Cancer and a Vegetarian Diet
    MD Anderson Cancer Center: Complementary Therapies: Vegan Diet
    Natural Cancer Cure: Woman Cures Breast Cancer with Vegan Diet
    Cooking to combat cancer: the vegan philosophy
    The Bristol Approach To Living With Cancer
    Vegan Diet may help to reduce cancer
    Vegan diet may reverse cancer
    Cancer patients go vegan
    Preventing Cancer
    Cancer: Killing Animals Is Killing Us
    Milk, dairy products and cancer risk
    A case-control study of diet and the risk of ovarian cancer (eggs, cholesterol)
    Milk and lactose intakes and ovarian cancer risk in the Swedish Mammography Cohort
    Premenopausal Fat Intake and Risk of Breast Cancer (fat mainly from red meat and high-fat dairy foods)
    Dietary Factors and Risk of Colon Cancer in Shanghai, China: diets high in red meat, eggs, and preserved foods increase the risk
    Egg consumption and cancer of the colon and rectum
    Research Shows Why African-Americans Get More Colon Cancer than Native Africans
    Study Suggests High-Meat Diets Encourage “Bad” Bacteria in the Gut

    Red Meat May Be Linked to Pancreatic Cancer



    Finally, a quote about vegan vs. lacto-vegetarian impact on cancer from www.cancerproject.com
    Steering clear of meat, dairy products, fried foods, and other fatty fare is an important first step in preventing cancer—and in surviving cancer if it has been diagnosed.
    There are also studies finding that there are no associations between eg. breast cancer and animal products or ovarian cancer. So... how do we know which of these studies we can rely on?

    From a vegan point of view, the significant part is that even if there may be animal products that eg. in very small amounts aren't harmful in any scientifically proven way, we don't need these animal products, because we can get the nutrients we need from non-animal sources. Even the very fragile vitamin B12, which vegans may have low levels of (mainly due to our modern lifestyles and what could be described as 'environmental reasons') can be compensated for - if necessary - by taking supplements (which often are produced by using a plant based fermentation method).

    For a number of years we have all seen general advice about eating more plants, and less meat. Even if there are some studies that "can't find any significant associations" between eggs/meat/dairy products and cancer, and some that do - there is no scientific basis for suggesting that eating more eggs, meat or dairy is needed to cure cancer - or, if animal products have a positive effect, that they are the only solution, because when reading studies that somewhat seem to justify use of animal products (eg. one I saw about eating three eggs a week during adolescence decreasing the risk of breast cancer by 18%), there's often (like in this case) a parenthesis about diets rich in vegetable oils and dietary fiber having similar effects. Or, if a nutrient found in an animal product - like choline - has a good effect on a disease, it is said that this products is good for us, often without mentioning that the same nutrient can be found in plants (in the case of choline: in wheat germ and cauliflower).

    On another note, there are different ways to read numbers in such studies. A text like this "a vegetarian diet reduces cancer fatalities by up to forty percent according to many studies including the British Medical Association" will look different from a veg*n perspective. While I doubt that some will claim that 40% isn't that much or that cancer isn't a good marker for what humans are adapted to eat, if we look at the same number from a vegan perspective, adding meat to a vegan diet would then increase the cancer fatalities not by 40%, but by 66,67%. Why? Because 100 minus 40% = 60, but 60 + 40% isn't 100. Going from 60 to 100 is a 66.67% increase. 100 is 166.67% of 60.

    The important part is of course not the numbers, but the many reports (not paid by, or performed by vegans) that demonstrate that a diet that doesnotconsist of animal products is much more suitable for humans - in spite of the hundreds of thousands of years of 'adaptation'.

    Another example that demonstrates this is that even if most humans for the major part of the recent human history in the Western world may have been eating a small or large amount of animal products, it doesn't take more than a few years to 'lose' that adaption: a vegetarian or vegan who has not been eating meat or dairy for some time will often have trouble digesting even a small amount of such products. It often takes time to 'tune in' to animal products again. An omnivore who haven't had an apple, cucumber or banana for a few years won't normally have any reaction against these plants at all.

  2. #2
    treehugga's Avatar
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    Default Re: Cancer and the vegan diet: some links

    Thanks for the info. I've heard of many people beating/controlling cancer via a vegan diet. It makes sense that the healthier your immune system is - the better the chance. Korn you are a mine of information

  3. #3
    Ex-admin Korn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Cancer, adaptation and the vegan diet: some links

    Korn you are a mine of information
    Google is.

    And - here's more (video link):
    Professor T. Colin Campbell PhD - "Animal protein (meat and dairy) causes cancer"

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    Ex-admin Korn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Cancer, adaptation and the vegan diet

    Here's another link about the association between meat and a statistically significant increase in pancreatic cancer.
    Last edited by Korn; Jan 22nd, 2009 at 10:56 AM.
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    Ex-admin Korn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Cancer, adaptation and the vegan diet

    “A low-fat plant-based diet would not only lower the heart attack rate about 85%, but would lower the cancer rate 60%.” William Castelli, M .D . Director, Framingham Health Study; National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

    William Castelli, M.D. is a name well known to most heart specialists around the world, but little known to the public. For over 40 years he has studied the diets and medical data of more than 6,000 people in the town of Framingham, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston. His two-fold crusade: first, to determine the cause of the growing epidemic of deaths in America from heart attack and stroke. And second, to reverse it.
    More here.
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    Ex-admin Korn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Cancer, adaptation and the vegan diet

    New Heart Disease Findings Suggest Meatless Meals Could Cut Health Care Costs



    New Heart Disease Findings Suggest Meatless Meals Could Cut Health Care Costs

    Scientific Review Finds Vegan Diet More Effective than ‘Lean Meat’ Approach in Fight Against America’s Number One Killer; Congress Urged to Take Findings to Heart

    WASHINGTON—A scientific review in October’s American Journal of Cardiology finds that vegetarian and vegan diets rich in nuts, soy, and fiber cut cholesterol and triglyceride levels more effectively than other dietary approaches commonly used to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, America’s number one killer. Study co-author Hope Ferdowsian, M.D., M.P.H., says these findings have clear implications for the debate over health care reform.

    In “The Effects of Plant-Based Diets on Plasma Lipids,” Dr. Ferdowsian and her co-authors reviewed 27 previously published scientific studies and compared the effects of four diet interventions on cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Individuals following a vegetarian or vegan diet combined with nuts, soy, and fiber experienced the greatest reduction in risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including up to a 35 percent reduction in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels. Dietary interventions including small amounts of lean meat were less effective at reducing total cholesterol and, thus, preventing a cardiac event.

    “If we don’t find ways to cut the cost of treating cardiovascular disease, our health care system is headed for intensive care,” says Dr. Ferdowsian, associate director of the Washington Center for Clinical Research. “Heart-healthy plant-based diets could dramatically reduce spending on cholesterol-lowering drugs, cardiac surgery, and blood pressure medication.”

    Between 2003 and 2005, the federal government spent more than $20 billion subsidizing corn, soybean, and sorghum, mainly for animal feed, and an additional $1.3 billion for dairy subsidies. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently purchased $30 million of surplus pork products for distribution to schools and other institutions.

    More than 48 percent of the adult population in the United States has total cholesterol levels above the desirable upper limit established by the National Cholesterol Education Program. High blood pressure affects 74 million Americans; coronary heart disease affects 17 million. Diseases related to high cholesterol, including heart disease, vascular disease, and stroke, account for more than 885,000 deaths and $634.2 billion in direct and indirect costs annually.

    For a copy of the paper or an interview with Dr. Ferdowsian, contact Tara Failey at 202-527-7319 or tfailey@pcrm.org.

    Founded in 1985, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a nonprofit organization that promotes preventive medicine, conducts clinical research, and encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in research.
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    Ex-admin Korn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Cancer, adaptation and the vegan diet

    We also have this old thread, which mainly was ported over from "Veganforum 1':
    Cancer and animal products
    I will not eat anything that walks, swims, flies, runs, skips, hops or crawls.

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    Default Re: Cancer, adaptation and the vegan diet

    thanks for continuing this thread, korn.

    there are many links in the first post here which i missed first time around.

    thanks

  9. #9
    Ex-admin Korn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Cancer, adaptation and the definition of 'omnivores'

    Hi cedarblue, if you find the above links interesting, this post may interest you as well.
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    Default Re: Cancer, adaptation and the definition of 'omnivores'

    I have had cancer 4 times. I did not became a vegan because of the cancer. While going having chemo early this year and eating a vegan "diet", I fold that the chemo didn't bring my blood counts down like before. Also that it took me less time to recover after a treatment. Normally I would be so exhausted after a treatment all that I could do was lay in bed. While eating a vegan diet I was able to come home, hang out friends and still have enough energy to do yoga every single day.

  11. #11
    patientia
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    Default Re: Cancer, adaptation and the definition of 'omnivores'

    Which type(s) of cancer have you had?

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    Default Re: Cancer, adaptation and the definition of 'omnivores'

    Hodgkins

  13. #13
    patientia
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    Default Re: Cancer, adaptation and the definition of 'omnivores'

    I'm glad you got rid of it

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    Default Re: Cancer, adaptation and the definition of 'omnivores'

    Thank you so much.

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    Ex-admin Korn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Cancer, adaptation and the definition of 'omnivores'

    Quote Korn View Post
    Some claim that humans are more or less perfectly 'adapted' to consuming animal products, or that we are more 'adapted' to eating an omnivorous diet consisting of eggs, meat and dairy products than we are to eating a vegan diet. Some of these link suggest something else...



    Skim Milk / Lo-Fat Milk Linked to Prostate Cancer
    Remarkable Cancer Recovery on the Raw Vegan Diet
    Cancer: Why We're Losing the War
    Who should become vegan: Cancer prevention
    Vegan diet 'cuts prostate cancer risk'
    Vegan diet and breast cancer risk - Scientific update
    Vegan proteins may reduce risk of cancer, obesity, and cardiovascular disease by promoting increased glucagon activity.
    Going vegan: Cancer forced a life change.(The Providence Journal)
    Very-Low-Fat Vegan Diet May Offer Cancer Protection
    Vegan diet taught as cancer deterrent
    On Cancer and a Vegetarian Diet
    MD Anderson Cancer Center: Complementary Therapies: Vegan Diet
    Natural Cancer Cure: Woman Cures Breast Cancer with Vegan Diet
    Cooking to combat cancer: the vegan philosophy
    The Bristol Approach To Living With Cancer
    Vegan Diet may help to reduce cancer
    Vegan diet may reverse cancer
    Cancer patients go vegan
    Preventing Cancer
    Cancer: Killing Animals Is Killing Us
    Milk, dairy products and cancer risk
    A case-control study of diet and the risk of ovarian cancer (eggs, cholesterol)
    Milk and lactose intakes and ovarian cancer risk in the Swedish Mammography Cohort
    Premenopausal Fat Intake and Risk of Breast Cancer (fat mainly from red meat and high-fat dairy foods)
    Dietary Factors and Risk of Colon Cancer in Shanghai, China: diets high in red meat, eggs, and preserved foods increase the risk
    Egg consumption and cancer of the colon and rectum
    Research Shows Why African-Americans Get More Colon Cancer than Native Africans
    Study Suggests High-Meat Diets Encourage “Bad” Bacteria in the Gut

    Red Meat May Be Linked to Pancreatic Cancer



    Finally, a quote about vegan vs. lacto-vegetarian impact on cancer from www.cancerproject.com
    Here's another relevant link:
    Woman finds cancer cure in dairy-free diet based on anti-cancer plants
    I will not eat anything that walks, swims, flies, runs, skips, hops or crawls.

  16. #16
    Ex-admin Korn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Cancer, adaptation and the definition of 'omnivores'

    cancersupportinternational.com published this Nov 3, 2010, including a reference to material posted in the June 2010 issue of the Lancet Oncology:
    Meat, dairy products, sugar may up breast cancer risk
    I will not eat anything that walks, swims, flies, runs, skips, hops or crawls.

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    Default Re: Cancer, adaptation and the definition of 'omnivores'

    Quote Korn View Post
    cancersupportinternational.com published this Nov 3, 2010, including a reference to material posted in the June 2010 issue of the Lancet Oncology:
    Meat, dairy products, sugar may up breast cancer risk
    Just started working my way through the links Korn ..absoultely riveting reading and particularly interesting reading for me as I work for Macmillan and deal with Cancer patients every day.

    Thank you
    Slack

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    SlackAlice's Avatar
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    Default Re: Cancer, adaptation and the vegan diet

    Quote Korn View Post
    We also have this old thread, which mainly was ported over from "Veganforum 1':
    Cancer and animal products
    Reading the link about Carcinogenic toxins reminded me of a conversation my mother had with a herbalist a few years ago following her own cancer diagnosis. The herbalist told her about the connection between meat eating and the development of carcinogenic toxins . She maintained that meat literally 'fed' the cancer and promoted its spread . My mother ( a life long meat lover) was obviously distressed by this , and mentioned it to her GP who dismissed it as 'cranky nonsense' and told her she needed to continue eating meat to maintain energy levels to cope with Chemo-therapy.

    My mother did in fact stop eating meat from that point , convinced that the herbalist had been right. Unfortunately by this time her cancer was far advanced and there was no time to gauge whether her change in diet had any impact .

    I was just musing that...many patients undergoing Chemo-therapy express a loss of apetite or revulsion to certain foods during their treatment. Meat is often cited as the thing they are able to stomach least.

  19. #19
    Ex-admin Korn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Cancer, adaptation and the definition of 'omnivores'

    In a decade or two, we'll probably know a lot more about what it is, in animal products, that promotes exaggerated cell division/growth in humans. I wouldn't be shocked if it was the same components which promotes growth in animals (high levels of B12/growth hormones).

    Cows grow a lot faster than humans, and they stop consuming growth stimulants (cow's milk) at young age. Our bodies don't seem to be able to handle these cell growth/division promoters well, especially when we are beyond the age where we aren't supposed to grow anymore, but the growth stimulants still have an effect.
    Last edited by Korn; Dec 18th, 2010 at 11:00 PM.
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    SlackAlice's Avatar
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    Default Re: Cancer, adaptation and the definition of 'omnivores'

    I have just done some depressing reading on another forum regarding the connection between Cancer and diet. One brave poster had cited the same link as you concerning Colon cancer and diet. He was blown right out of the water. Members fell over themselves discrediting his post and worse still resorting to lame 'Veggie jokes' .

    One post detailed the advice of her Oncologist who had urged her to 'up' her protein intake espeically meat as it would build her up and supply vital energy needed to cope with the Chemo- therapy.

    Another member said her GP had told her about this connection when she was diagnosed with Colon Cancer and she had tried cutting out meat but was miserable and hungry. Later, when she found out the GP was Vegan her enraged husband had made a complaint to the surgery about the GP forcing his cranky beliefs on his patients.

    I am going to read at length the many pages on this subject before tentatively dipping my own toe into the water.....

  21. #21
    Ex-admin Korn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Cancer, adaptation and the definition of 'omnivores'

    Quote SlackAlice View Post
    Later, when she found out the GP was Vegan her enraged husband had made a complaint to the surgery about the GP forcing his cranky beliefs on his patients.
    This is an interesting one. If a doctor, or scientist, would state anything pro-vegan, many non-vegans (and even vegans) would think that he would be biased. But would most people think that a non-vegan scientist or doctor would be biased if he came up with some pro-meat or anti-vegan statements, for instance in a documentary or interview? Probably not...
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  22. #22
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    Default Re: Cancer, adaptation and the definition of 'omnivores'

    Quote SlackAlice View Post
    I have just done some depressing reading on another forum regarding the connection between Cancer and diet. One brave poster had cited the same link as you concerning Colon cancer and diet. He was blown right out of the water. Members fell over themselves discrediting his post and worse still resorting to lame 'Veggie jokes' .

    One post detailed the advice of her Oncologist who had urged her to 'up' her protein intake espeically meat as it would build her up and supply vital energy needed to cope with the Chemo- therapy.

    Another member said her GP had told her about this connection when she was diagnosed with Colon Cancer and she had tried cutting out meat but was miserable and hungry. Later, when she found out the GP was Vegan her enraged husband had made a complaint to the surgery about the GP forcing his cranky beliefs on his patients.
    A friend of mine who had colon cancer was advised to steer clear of meat and also, I believe, dairy by her consultant - not a vegan as far as I know. She followed the advice (she didn't eat much meat to start with) but it didn't actually work in her case - I think she was pretty unlucky as she had two different kinds of cancer at the same time. That was a few years ago though so I don't know what the current orthodoxy is.

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