What we got here is an important landmark study, on the major risk factors for age-related cancer. In other words, the first 20 years of life are ignored because people are still growing taller. However once the public reaches the age of 21 age-related cancer is about lifestyle factors that take between 20 and 30 years to produce a diagnosis of cancer. Thus, age-related cancer starts showing up in the population during their early 40s.
Just like with T. Colin Campbell's China Study, the real challenge is that you are working with a very convoluted, messy set of data, that like it or not requires a great deal of epidemiological research experience to interpret correctly. Thus, when a total idiot, like Denise Minger for example, attempts a misguided interpretation by strictly looking at just the numbers, you are going to end up with some very erroneous conclusions. Sorry, but trying to juggle the 2008 data used in this study is mind boggling under the best of circumstances and is guaranteed to give the average layperson a major headache.
Unfortunately, following Denise Minger's example, those wishing to justify their bad meat eating habits will have plenty of fodder to chew on.
Dr. Grant in his ecological study essentially has provided a plausible physical mechanism of action for explaining why eating animal products will increase your risk for getting cancer (i.e., breast, kidney, multiple myeloma, ovarian, pancreatic, prostate, testicular, thyroid, uterine). In short, eating excessive amounts of animal products promotes greater body height, as well as promotes cancer tumor growth, with insulin or growth hormones, like growth factor-I (IGF-I).
The Smoking - Animal Products Cancer Link
In brief, the major lifestyle risk factors for cancer are as follows.
- Smoking
- Consumption of animal products
- Vitamin D status or the latitude connection
- Viruses
- Sugar or sweeteners (i.e., prostate, pancreatic, corpus uteri, and for females brain cancer)
Three cancers were found to have an inverse correlation with vitamin D status (cervical [has a virus connection], lip/oral, and thyroid).
"The most frequent types were lung, prostate, colorectal, stomach, and liver cancer for men, and breast, colorectal, cervix uteri, lung, and stomach cancer for women." [Grant 2014]
Animal product consumption refers to eating eggs, fish, red meat, white meat, and milk products.
As a corollary to the cancer risk from the consumption of animal products, taller individuals have a greater cancer risk than short individuals do. Moreover, those who smoke or eat excessive amounts of animal products experienced over 50% of the cancer incidence rates.
The biggest cancer risk factor for females is the consumption of animal products whereas for males their biggest risk factor is smoking. Grant's study confirms that meat is a major risk factor for breast cancer.
"Cancer-causing viral infections such as hepatitis B and C viruses and human papillomavirus are responsible for up to 20% of cancer deaths" [Grant 2014]
The only people who should be concerned about melanoma cancer are light skin types who have moved away from their ancestral homeland too close to the equator for their skin color. For example, Aryan people from Scandinavian countries with blue eyes, blond hair, and light skin or redheads with light skin from Ireland who have moved to a tropical latitude have a strong risk for melanoma cancer.
Drinking alcohol was correlated only with colorectal cancer.
In conclusion: The Natural Health Perspective would call the conclusions of this ecological study shear genius.
Grant was of the opinion that vitamin D status was protective; it was just that the health effect of consuming animal products and/or smoking was strong enough to mask or override the correlation of latitude on reducing cancer risks.
In the back of the China Study book in an appendix Dr. T. Colin Campbell claims that the consumption of meat increases your body's need for vitamin D. This line of thinking has a strong parallel to Dr. Grant's position on animal products masking or blocking the health protective effects of vitamin D.
Cancers with a virus connection are a lifestyle choice because everyone can be regularly supplementing with both retinol and zinc.
