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Fat
And Cancer...How Much Is Too Much Fat?
The National Cancer Institute has long recommended that fat be
limited to less than 30 percent of calories and that the fattiest
meats be replaced by leaner meat, poultry, fish, and vegetables.
These recommendations, however, are much too weak to prevent cancer
or to increase survival for those who have already been diagnosed
with the disease.
A large study of American nurses showed that those who limited fat
to 27 percent of their calories were not any better off against
cancer than those consuming more fat. Some have interpreted this to
mean that diet has nothing to do with breast cancer. A more
reasonable conclusion is that the diets these women followed were
still high-risk diets. After all, a diet including regular
consumption of animal products and drawing nearly 30 percent of
calories from fat is nothing like the traditional Asian diets
associated with low cancer risk.
As important as it is to get the fat off your plate, that is only
the beginning. Other parts of the diet play important roles in
cancer prevention. Vegetables, fruits, grains, and beans provide
fiber, which helps the body to rid itself of excess estrogen.
One way the body rids itself of sex hormones is through the
digestive tract. The liver pulls sex hormones from the blood,
chemically alters them, and sends them down the bile ducts into the
intestinal tract. There, the fiber from grains, vegetables, fruits,
and beans escorts them through the intestine and finally out the
door as wastes. At least that is how the system is supposed to work.
But chicken breasts, beef, eggs, cheese, and all other animal
products contain no fiber at all. As these products have assumed
larger and larger portions of the American plate, they have pushed
off the grains, vegetables, beans, and fruits. Without adequate
fiber to hold them in the digestive tract, sex hormones are
reabsorbed back into the bloodstream where they once again become
biologically active. The hormones your body was trying to rid are
then recruited back into circulation. Building your diet from
grains, vegetables, fruits, and legumes assures plenty of fiber for
the body's needs.
Source: Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine |
