source: the canadian press

TORONTO — Eating a so-called western diet rich in meat, fried foods and salty snacks significantly raises the risk of having a heart attack in people around the world - whether they live in Canada, China or Chile, a study of dietary patterns suggests.

While a diet that's high in fat and animal protein and short on fruit and vegetables has long been a recognized scourge in North America and Europe when it comes to heart health, the study found that such regular mealtime fare has a similarly negative impact in other parts of the world.

"What we found was that if you ate a westernized diet, no matter which country you're in, then it's bad for you," said senior author Dr. Salim Yusuf, director of the Population Health Research Institute at McMaster University. "And if you ate a prudent diet, no matter which country you're in, it was good for you."

A western diet was found to increase the risk of heart attack by 35 per cent, while a prudent diet - one that includes lots of fruits and vegetables - cut the risk by 30 per cent, the researchers said.

"The good diet seemed to be protective irrespective of which region of the world you came from, and the bad diet seemed to be harmful irrespective of which region you came from," Yusuf said Monday from Hamilton.

got breast cancer?

source: milk sucks

 

Breast cancer is the most common cancer-related death among women in most of the Western world and the leading cause of death for women under 50. It strikes about 182,000 women in the U.S. each year and kills 46,000. Consuming dairy products is linked to an increased risk for breast cancer because dairy products are high in fat, animal protein, and hormones, each of which increases cancer risk. Since the 1980’s, study after study has linked dairy consumption to a high incidence of breast and other cancers. Women seeking to minimize their chances of breast cancer should avoid milk, other dairy products, and meat.

Just a few examples:

The American Cancer Society points out that "about one-third of the 500,000 cancer deaths that occur in the United States each year is due to dietary factors … Although the committee recognizes that no diet can guarantee full protection against any disease, we believe that our recommendations offer the best nutrition information currently available to help Americans reduce their risk of cancer." The Society’s top two recommendations are: "1. Choose most of the foods you eat from plant sources"; and "2. Limit your intake of high-fat foods, particularly from animal sources."

The American Dietetic Association reports that breast cancer is most prevalent in countries where women consume high-fat, animal-based diets. In Asia, where milk consumption is extremely rare, breast cancer is almost unheard of. International renowned nutrition expert Dr. T. Colin Campbell points to China, a basically nonmilk-drinking country, where cancer deaths among women aged 35 to 64 averaged less than 9 per 100,000, as opposed to 44 per 100,000 in the U.S.

Japanese women who follow a more Western-style, meat- and dairy-based diet are eight times more likely to develop breast cancer than their counterparts who eat a plant-based diet not containing dairy products.

There are numerous other studies to cite. For example, Dr. J.L. Outwater of Princeton University and Drs. A. Nicholson and N. Barnard of The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine cite more than 12 epidemiological studies that show a positive correlation between dairy products and breast cancer.