To put it succinctly...me too. I would prefer to be vegan, but my body apparently prefers me to be a meat eater, it seems. I am fascinated by the fact that some people are helped by low carb, and others by a lowfat, plant-based diet (McDougall, Fuhrman).



Could you expand upon this, if it's not too invasive a request?

Same here! It is interesting to know if individuals are actually helped by their diets, or if they just linked 2 variables occuring after each other to "a causal effect". Or possibly, meat/grains might be (un)healthy under certain conditions and for some populations. Very little is known on this topic.



It's not invasive. I read that milk/dairy might decrease colorectal cancer risk, while at the same time increasing prostate cancer risk. This got me triggered to evaluate the effects on a larger scale in order to "know" if foods might influence different populations in different ways, and to "know" if these effects might differ by the amount of milk/dairy consumed.
Years earlier, I extensively studied books linking vitamins positively to various health outcomes. At that time, I was convinced foods/nutrients might impact health to a large extend.

My condolences. When cancer strikes you always want to know if it could have been prevented. Diet is not the whole picture. There are so many carcinogens in our environment and so many genetic variables that it is impossible to attribute cancer rates to dietary factors alone.

Research into meat and cancer typically don't distinguish between 'unprocessed' meat - like a stake - and cured meats like sausages. Cured meats contain sodium nitrite and they can be turned into nitrosamines in the stomach. And those are linked to cancer. But ascorbate in your diet will block this.


Sugar simply blocks your (innate) immune system, making sure cancer promoting agents get a fair chances for doing damage. And fructose is the worst.

Sorry Ron_Mocci i guess i must have forgotten you. Hope you are still alive.

Well, my "N group" is only two... but my whole-grain X since 1970 eating parents have one case of diabetes and one case of heart disease. Dad's had two heart attacks, 40 years apart. This one in October nearly killed him.

The older they got, the more they shied away from meats, and my father has always eschewed fat. Whoopsie.

Meat today is generally from grain-fed beef. Grains are grown with chemical fertilisers and pesticides.

Grain fed beef is also virtually non-existant of omega 3.

Grass-fed beef is rich in omega 3 and if not fed on pastures but native growing grasses, are also chemical free.

Maybe this has something to do with meat eating and cancers ????

First off, so sorry. My heart goes out to you and your family.

2 points.
First point, liver cancers are sometimes the result of viruses, such as hepatitis. In fact people who have had even a mild bout, in the past, mild enough not even to cause symptoms, can get liver cancer years later.

Second point: We are all different. Our bodies react differently to the same foods. Some of us are allergic or intolerant to stuff that others eat without a care in the world.

I think it's hard when arguing statistics, because there are always the "outliers" who prove the opposite point. Outliers don't disprove something, they merely illustrate that not everyone will follow the same statistical curve.

So when something is outside of expectations, you need to look at whether there is a significant group of outliers that say can't deal with protein or an significant group of outliers that can't cope with carbs.

I used to believe the business about vegetarians being healthier. Then one day a long time 7th Day Adventist vegetarian friend died of breast cancer. She ate low fat, high in veggies, no extra sugars, no huge amounts of fruit and got her proteins from legumes, and consumed whole grains. She shopped at the health food store for crying out loud. Organic, expeller pressed stuff! But she died! It shocked me.

Then some years later I tried going vegetarian, doing vegan part of the time. I ended up with a severe allergy to soy, my thyroid swelled into a goiter and I got Hashimotos. I've had half of it out. I cut the soy and other legumes out but the damage was done. I have struggled with auto immune issues since.

Unfortunately I was looking at the stats I had available to me at the time, and forgetting about individual differences. Stats are great for large numbers of the population, but not for outliers.

A better way for me would have been to go with what made me feel better (low carb, high fat, moderate protein and NO trans fats or vegetable oils beyond coconut and olive oil)

But I was scared. I was an RN, and I had years of propaganda telling me to ignore my body and eat more veggies, especially soy.

I hope your aunt beats this, and if she goes with whatever makes her feel better, then who cares about the stats.

Stats treat populations in groups of thousands. They don't see individuals. Best of luck

I REFUSE to believe that meat causes any disease, but I do believe may of the additives to meat would be the likely culprit. But I think a SAD diet would be more dangerous than Atkins or LC.

My great aunt lived to be 102 and her daughter is 92. They never went on a diet and ate what they wanted. I don't know how much; maybe just to appetite. The French lady who lived to be 122 smoked until she was 100. So, maybe worrying about whether it is meat, veggies or whatever causes more health problems than not worrying about what you eat. Just a suggestion.

This may be one of the best things anyone ever posted here.

May I make this my new sig line?

This article is a nice look at research which legitimately did show "cancerous" results from meat/dairy when a comparative diet not of animal products did not.

However, when you read the article, you'll see the problems with that...

It's a review of the show "forks over knives" but if you don't want to wade thruogh that, ctrl+f search the page for this text:

Minute 26:05

And read from there on.

http://rawfoodsos.com/2011/09/22/fo...w-and-critique/

PJ