Health for life

If youre a human being, and you are, more than likely youve been affected by cancer in some way.  Whether its a close relative, or a friend, or someone more distant, weve all dealt with it.  Ive been one of the lucky ones, though.  I only had my first encounter with the deadly disease a few months ago, when my good friend Shawns mother passed away after a battle with breast cancer.  She was a wonderful woman, and it certainly was, and continues to be, a difficult time for all involved.

Unfortunately, nobody truly understands what causes cancer to develop.  Sure there are some things we know can cause cancer, like excessive sun exposure.  But the truth is there are more unknowns that knowns.  Take diet for example.  It seems intuitive that cancer would be linked to what we eat, and no doubt it is.  But what foods actually cause cancer?  Which foods protect against it?  And how would you even go about studying something like this scientifically, when the disease takes a lifetime to develop?

Well there seems to be have been a breakthrough, according to this recent video presentation by Craig Thompson, President and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.  And I quote...

"If you overfeed somebody with fat, you dont increase their cancer risk at all.  You overfeed somebody with carbohydrates, and you dramatically increase their cancer rate.  And protein is halfway in between."



Do a double take if you need it.  Queue up the video at about 27:10 for the real meat and potatoes.  And I repeat...  Overeating fat does not increase your risk for cancer, but overeating on carbohydrates DRAMATICALLY increases your risk for cancer.  And Id like to reiterate, this is not some bozo on the internet saying this... this is the president and CEO of the #2 ranked cancer hospital in the country.  This is mainstream news.  This is real.

Now.  Here are my points, displayed in an organized fashion.


1.)  Eating fat does not increase your cancer risk.  And Ive said this before, like two years ago in fact (1, 2, 3).  Youve been fed a load of bullshit.  I told you so.

2.)  We eat too many carbohydrates.  In the past few decades, we as Americans have increased our caloric intake.  Many of us are eating more calories than we need.  Fact.  However... our fat intake has barely changed.  The extra calories were eating are coming from CARBOHYDRATES (4)!  This does not bode well for our cancer risk.  


3.)  We do not eat too much fat.  Although Mr. Thompson feels that overeating on fat is perfectly fine for your cancer risk, he still thinks you should keep the fat in check for the sake of your heart health.  According to him, "Right now, every dietary guideline that youve learned about in school was developed for heart fitness.  Youre much, much less likely to die of the diseases associated with heart disease [on a low fat diet].  And so weve had a dramatic decrease of almost 60% in the deaths in one generation from heart disease."

Okay, so weve had a 60% decrease in deaths from heart disease... but were not eating less fat!  There are plenty of reasons were not dying as often from heart disease, like a reduction in societal stress (believe it or not, its true (5) ) and widespread use of statin drugs (they may not save lives, but they certainly reduce your risk for heart disease (6) ). 

4.)  Eating fat, specifically saturated fat, does NOT increase your risk for heart disease.  If theres anything Ive talked about exhaustively on this blog, its this very topic... the best of which can be found HERE, while related articles can be found here and here.  This mans specialty is in cancer, and I think he should stick to what he knows best.

5.)  Go enjoy a stick of butter!  Okay not really, thats gross.  But a small slab??  Aint nothin wrong with that!


I leave you with a little poem I wrote...
Fat doesnt give me cancer,
And it wont give me heart disease. 
Why dont I stop worrying then,
Pass the butter, please!

Where do you get your protein? If its from red meat (steak and pork), processed meat (bacon and salami), and high-fat dairy foods, it may be increasing your risk of fatal and non-fatal heart attack.

That was the finding of a recent assessment of the very large Nurses Health Study which followed over 84,000 women for 26 years.¹

It found:

• Higher intakes of red meat, red meat excluding processed meat, and high-fat dairy were significantly associated with elevated risk of coronary heart disease (CHD).
  
  
• Higher intakes of poultry, fish, and nuts were significantly associated with lower risk.

And concluded:

"These data suggest that high red meat intake increases risk of CHD."

The study was unique in that it investigated how substituting one source of protein for another, e.g. nuts, fish, or poultry for red meat, affects heart disease risk. It found, for example, that substituting one serving of nuts for one serving of red meat reduced CHD risk by 30%; substituting a serving of fish for red meat reduced it by 24%.

Although the study was conducted on women, the researchers say men are likely to benefit from the findings as well.

Lead author of the study, Adam Bernstein:

"Our research adds to the growing and convincing body of evidence that red meat intake should be minimized or excluded from the diet in order to maintain cardiovascular health."

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¹Major Dietary Protein Sources And Risk Of Coronary Heart Disease In Women, Circulation, August 2010

Shifting Protein Sources Away From Red Meats May Reduce Risk Of Heart Disease In Women, Harvard School of Public Health, Press Release, August 2010

In 2004, the CDC published a study that found:

" ... the prevalence of overweight or obesity was 85.2% [among people with diabetes]."
- Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity Among Adults with Diagnosed Diabetes

Given the strong correlation between weight and type 2 diabetes, the following documentary might be worth a watch.

PBS is currently broadcasting "Fat: What No One Is Telling You", a film investigating the issues surrounding the obesity epidemic.

From their website:

"With 66 percent of U.S. adults either overweight or obese, our girth is a serious public health issue. Yet many of us still view being overweight as a character flaw, a lack of self-control, or even a moral crime.

But does fat really equal failure? FAT: What No One Is Telling You explores the myriad psychological, physiological and environmental factors that can make it so tough to shed pounds and keep them off. In this documentary, Executive producer Naomi Boak and producer/director Tom Spain, both Emmy Award honorees, share new scientific knowledge about hunger, eating, and human metabolic operation. This film also explains our psychological responses to food, and shows how external pressures (such as oversized restaurant portions and the unending barrage of food advertisement) make fighting fat so difficult, both on the personal and national levels."

You can watch a preview here:



Check their site for local listing dates and times.
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