I am going to use the same outline that I did for chapter one and two but this time I deleted the vocabulary section.
Salient points:
· Chemicals that cause cancer when given in very high doses to animals get a lot of press. However the same is not true of animal protein and the impact it has on fueling cancer.
· Animal protein (both casein from milk and fish) has been shown to fuel cancer growth in rats and mice.
· Vegetable protein at high levels (in this case gluten and soy) did not fuel cancer growth in lab animals.
· In laboratory animals cancer could be turned off on turned on based on the percentage of animal protein in the diet.
· The amount of animal protein in the diet made a bigger difference in the growth of cancer than the amount of chemical carcinogen that the animal was exposed to. In fact “cancer development is modified by relatively modest changes in protein consumption.”
· The three stages of cancer were discussed: initiation, promotion and progression.
· The RDA for protein is 10% of calories which is “considerably more than the actual amount required.”
Observations:
I still remember the first time I read this chapter not wanting to believe what it contained was true. How could something that I loved like milk, cheese or Greek yogurt be bad for me? We had been eating them all for years and often in large quantities. Oh…. yeah …. there was the problem with the cancer, could it really be related to our consumption of animal based food?
After all I had been making non-fat Greek yogurt at home every week for us to have for breakfast because “everyone” said it was healthy. What I didn’t realize at the time was that the Greek yogurt was worse for us than regular yogurt. Let me explain. The process of making Greek yogurt is to strain the whey from the yogurt which concentrates the casein. Wonderful … all these years when I thought I was doing something healthy for us I was actually doing the opposite. *ugh*
When I got to the part about fish protein on liver and pancreatic cancer I was also shocked. How often do you read or hear that eating fish is good for you? Fish has omega 3 fatty acids and those are very healthy. They are healthy right? Well apparently they aren’t though you never hear anyone say that either other than when they mention mercury or other toxins. Consider if you will the composition of fish fat. Did you know that fish fat is a mixture of fats including saturated fat? Additionally if omega 3 fatty acids are so unstable in the heat (think about flax oil being sold in dark refrigerated bottles) how can eating cooked fish be a good source of omega 3’s? Before you say that you will just have sushi don’t forget about the nasty worms in raw fish. Thanks but I will just skip the fish if you don’t mind.
For those of you who think you could never give up meat or dairy do you still believe that after reading this chapter? Reading about turning on and off cancer was mind blowing for me. While I didn’t want to believe it was true I also thought that it certainly wasn’t going to hurt us to give it a try and if Dr. Campbell was right it was going to help us, which it certainly seems to have done.
Obviously the most important point in this chapter for me was the fact that cancer could be turned off or turned on based on the amount of animal protein in the diet. What was the most important point in this chapter for you?
Well Ali, this is the chapter that helped my make my decision whether or not to have the gene testing done for breast cancer. I finally felt like I had some control over cancer and it wan't just "going to happen". I sometimes lose my focus and animal products start creeping their way back into my diet and then I listen to this book again and I get back on track. It makes me feel powerful to know I can change what my cells do.
ReplyDeleteJust so you know, Ali, I'm trying to finish the chapter so I can comment. Maybe later today. :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad to be re-reading this book. I have no business eating dairy of any sort! The link between the milk protein casein and cancer promotion is compelling, and I need to knock it off with adding cheese to my salads!
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I would love to know more about what type of casein was fed to the rats/mice. Was it milk (a food) or was it a processed/synthesized version of milk (like a powder)? Ali, do you know? I do get irritated when foods nutrients are isolated in studies and then the results are extrapolated to include the food itself. For example, carrots are not the same as pasteurized carrot juice or beta-carotene supplements...so studies that use beta-carotene supplements should not have their results extrapolated to include carrots (beta carotene supps may increase lung cancer prevalence, but carrots do not). This is why I want to know more about the "casein" used was it a processed powder or or an actual food?
Kit and Kaboodle, you bring up exactly what I was going to bring up and what my husband (molecular biophysicist who studies DNA damage and repair and toxicology) mentioned when he browsed through this book. I know the rats were given casein, not a whole (or even skim) milk product. I don't have a reference right now, but I remember reading recently that the whey in milk does great things in concert with or to counteract the casein. It may be in one of the links I posted as a response to the last chapter discussion, if anyone is interested.
ReplyDeleteAli, I think your point about draining off the whey and thus isolating the casein is a good one, though I expect that your Greek yogurt was still (because of other components or remaining whey) a completely different product than the casein these rats got. I wonder, too, about the fish protein these animals got--what kind, how processed, etc.?
That's my dominant thought from this chapter, and to any extent that Dr. Campbell is leaving out important information in furtherance of his thesis, I don't like it. But I'm reading on! :-)
Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteThe field of epigentics is still fairly new. However there is a lot of good data that supports the idea that what you eat and your other lifestyle habits make a huge difference in how your genes express themselves. I can't look at meat and dairy the same way now. Sadly most people look for reasons not to believe because they seem to think eating what they are used to is more important. Most of our friends fall into that category and it breaks my heart. Good for you taking control of your health. :-)
Ali
Kit,
ReplyDeleteWe have been omni, vegan, flexatarian and back to vegan. It is not easy to be a healthy vegan in America that is for certain. I completely understand how the animal prodcuts tend to creep back into your life. The important thing is that you are working on improving your health and you should feel fabulous about that. :-)
I will need to go back and check my notes from the Cornell program to see if they mention the form that the casein was in. However since it was described as casein and not milk I will assume it was not in whole form. However that doesn't explain why the children eating meat in the Phillipines were getting liver cancer. Science has a tendency to isolate things for testing to have tighter control. However I agree that can be misleading.
Ali
Cindy,
ReplyDeleteI mentioned the proported beneficial effect of whey protein which I read in "Life Over Cancer". However it is worth nothing that the doctor who wrote that book also doesn't advocate dairy or animal flesh other than a little fish periodically.
Personally I am furious that I had to do years of my own research to find out the impact of dairy and meat on health. If I knew then what I know now I would have never, ever have made and fed us Greek yogurt. Whenever I hear someone say it is healthy I fume inside. That is my biggest complaint about Dr. Oz in fact.
From taking the Cornell course I don't believe that Dr. Campbell is intentionally leaving anything out. In fact I think he only wants people to have a healthier life. He doesn't have any "ethical" agenda that I have seen. The ones whose motivation I serious question are the people who follow Weston Price and they seem bent on quieting Dr. Campbell and the people like him.
In the end we all have to decide for ourselves who and what makes sense to us. Neither Dan nor I initially set out to become vegan. However the improvements in our health have been far too dramatic to ignore. It doesn't seem to be a coincidence to me though the oncologist is still suspect.
Ali
Yes, I'm also miffed that the negative health effects of dairy/meat aren't really reported on in a meaningful way.
ReplyDeleteI'm no "apologist" for the dairy industry, but I do think it is important to note that casein is not milk. That being said, it's important to look at the whole body of research related to dairy/cancer - from lab rat testing to epidemiological studies. The population studies that will be discussed in future chapters will support the casein/cancer promotion results. The "Big Picture" is important.
Kit,
ReplyDeleteI agree casein isn't milk but it is 87% of the protein in milk. However I can speak from personal experience that when we eliminated animal products cancer stopped growing. Coincidence...maybe? But we don't plan to add them back to test the hypothesis.
Ali
Cindy,
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in any info on whey counteracting casein, since I also prefer to examine "foods" instead of "nutrients". The only discussion I saw on this from the links you provided in the Ch 2 discussion was to:
http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/China-Study.html
which is a site hosted by a Weston A Price Foundation follower. The more I research their (Weston Price) recommendations, the more I realize they like to pick-and-choose journal articles that support their beliefs. I don't view them as an unbiased (or even scientifically credible) source. My $0.02.
Kit,
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you saw my earlier comment but Dr. Keith Block (in "Life Over Cancer") also discussed the reported benefits of casein but....did not believe they were sufficient to overcome the detrimental impact of casein. We don't use whey supplements because most whey protein is isolated and that has other health problems. Like you we prefer to eat whole foods.
BTW I agree with you about the Weston Price followers. The more I read the more I distrust them.
Ali
I first read this research in Eat to Live, and it was so horrifying. My immediate gut instinct was to tell everyone that I am acquainted with who is also fighting cancer. I held back for the most part because my friends will think I have lost my mind, but I did share an article through email with a few. One seemed interested, one said he would check into it, and one ignored me completely. I've also shared with a couple of coworkers, who think I've gone a little nutty.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I have REALLY been struggling at keeping to this way of eating, but I keep going back to this chapter, and I can't stop trying. :)