Nutrition and Cancer
Diet is the most important reversible risk factor for cancer
What causes cancer? In 2015, researchers updated the landmark 1981 study from the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment noting that the original estimates had “generally [hold] true for 35 years.” At 35% of the attributable risk, tobacco was the single largest contributor to cancer. But very close behind, was our diet, which researchers estimated contributed between 30–60% of the risk. Generally accepted as true, the far more contentious question is “What part of the diet contributed to the risk of cancer?”
Fiber and Cancer
The legendary Irish surgeon Denis Burkitt noted in 1973 that many diseases characteristic of modern Western civilization were noticeably absent where he worked in rural Africa. Cancer, specifically colorectal cancer was one of these diseases. Burkitt hypothesized that diet was the main differentiating factor, and specifically, the fiber. The traditional African diet contained a lot of fiber — a lot. This bulked up the stool, leading to frequent and large-volume bowel movements. Big lush piles of poo. Not the measly, rabbit pellet stools of the European…
