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Diet and Breast Cancer Information
Introduction
There are many conditions in Western industrialised societies today that were unheard of, or at least very rare, just a century ago. The same conditions are still unheard of in primitive peoples who do not have the 'benefits' of our knowledge. There is a very good reason for this: They eat what Nature intended; we don't. The diseases caused by our incorrect and unnatural diets are those featured on these pages.
Dietary causes:
Polyunsaturated fats and oils; high-carbohydrate diet; insufficient vitamin D (lack of sunshine) Before the twentieth century breast cancer was practically unknown; during the last century breast cancer took on epidemic proportions. This fact alone should have set the alarm bells ringing. But, for some reason, it was ignored and, today, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. In 1971, the year that President Nixon declared 'War on Cancer', 11,182 women in England and Wales died of breast cancer; in 2004 the number was 10,972.[i] As you can see, not a lot has really changed over the last third of a century, despite countless trillions spent trying to find a cure or useful treatment for breast cancer.
It's even worse in the USA where breast cancers have increased at an alarming rate over recent years. In the 1940s, a woman's lifetime risk of breast cancer was 1 in 22. By 2004, breast cancer had tripled to 1 in 7. More American women died of breast cancer in the last twenty years than the total number of Americans killed in World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War together.[ii] And the situation is getting steadily worse.
Cereals and sugars
Breast cancer is strongly associated with other diseases of the Metabolic Syndrome such as diabetes and obesity. There is very strong evidence that a major dietary cause of breast cancer is a carbohydrate based, 'healthy' diet. It may be significant that UK research suggests that people with coeliac disease ? and who, as a consequence, don't eat wheat and other cereals ? have only about one-third the risk of breast cancer.[iii] This adds more weight to the other evidence that it is carbs that increase breast cancer risk.
Furthermore, an epidemiological study in 21 modern countries in Europe, North America, and Asia, revealed that sugar intake is a strong risk factor that contributes to higher breast cancer rates, particularly in older women.[iv] Another 4-year study at the National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection in the Netherlands found that breast cancer risk associated with the intake of sugars, independent of other energy sources, more than doubled for breast cancer patients.[v]
Insulin Resistance
A high blood insulin level also has many adverse effects: It increases risk of thrombosis, increases arterial plaque formation, prevents plaque regression, stimulates connective tissue synthesis and stimulates the production of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1),[vi] [vii] all of which increase the risk of a heart attack. It also serves to make the kidneys retain sodium, and enhances the flow of sodium and calcium into the smooth muscle cells in artery walls which have been shown to increase blood pressure. If that weren't enough, insulin increases the risk of prostate, endometrial and breast cancers, and makes all cancers more likely to metastasise (spread).[viii] [ix] It also increases the risk of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS),[x] and is suspected in relation to gestational hypertension, preeclampsia and osteoporosis.
References
[i]. Registrar General's Mortality (Cause) Statistics, HMSO, London
[ii]. State of the Evidence: What Is the Connection Between the Environment and Breast Cancer? Breast Cancer Fund and Breast Cancer Action Report, 2004. See http://www.breastcancerfund.org
[iii]. West J, Logan RF, Smith CJ, et al. Malignancy and mortality in people with coeliac disease: population based cohort study. BMJ 2004; 329: 716-9.
[iv]. Seeley S. Diet and breast cancer: the possible connection with sugar consumption. Med Hyp 1983; 11: 319-27.
[v]. Moerman CJ, et al. Dietary sugar intake in the aetiology of biliary tract cancer. Int J Epidemiol 1993; 22: 207-14.
[vi]. Meigs JB, Mieeleman MA, Nathan DM, et al. Hyperinsulinemia, hyperglyceima, and impaired hemostasis. The Framingham offspring study. JAMA 2000; 283: 221-229.
[vii]. DeFronzo RA, Eleuterio F. Insulin resistance: a multifaceted syndrome responsible for NIDDM, obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Diabetes Care 1991; 14: 173-91.
[viii]. Goodwin PJ, Ennis M, Pritchard KI, et al. Fasting insulin and outcome in early-stage breast cancer: results of a prospective cohort study. J Clin Oncol 2002; 20: 42-51.
[ix]. Rosen Q. Serum insulin-like growth factors and insulin-like growth factor-binding proteins: clinical implications. Clin Chem 1999; 45: 1384-90.
[x]. Amowitz LL, Sobel BE. Cardiovascular consequences of polycystic ovary syndrome. Endocrinol Metab Clin North Am 1999; 28: 438-58.
