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You Are What You Eat

Big Nasty

We've all heard the above but something somebody said to me the other day got me thinking. Apparently 1 in 3 of us will die prematurely from cancer. Now I know 78% of statistics are made up on the spot but hear me out.

I got to thinking about all the people I know who have died. Most have been from natural causes / old age but they don't count as it's not a premature. Of those I know who have passed prematurely I know of one suicide, one car accident, two heart attacks, one septicemia, two strokes, one brain hemorrhage, one cirrhosis and at least ten cancer cases. Can anyone here say they don't know at least a few friends, relatives or neighbours that have died from cancer? Definitely the biggest cause of premature death in my experience anyway.

So where did all this cancer come from anyhow? I don't remember hearing about as much cancer thirty years ago as today. Maybe fifty years ago people were dying from cancer and it was blamed on TB / pneumonia but not thirty years back, or twenty, or ten. With all the advances in medicine many diseases have been all but wiped out (in the western world anyhow) but cancer seems to be on the increase.

So what's changed? Pollution is on the way down so it's not that or are we only now seeing the results of the industrial revolution? I think that would have been affecting people in a more serious way before now. So how about what we eat? How has our diet changed in say, the last thirty years?

Processed food, lots of it. Ready made meals and sauces full of salt and sugar. Fruit and vegetables covered in pesticide and fertilisers. Meat that hasn't the time to grow naturally (another 'statistic' I heard was that a chicken fillet breast is 28 days from chick birth to plate) and also microwaved food. 'Nuking' a processed meal for two minutes and it coming out piping hot just can't be right. It's basically radiation, yeah?

So there you have it - is the way we eat today contributing to the rise of cancer? Food for thought anyhow...........

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Fromthetrees

I eat loads of pussy,

so I'm a hairy smelly cat I guess.

pebbles21

Glad i dont know you anyway!

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

MCMLXXV wrote: »

We've all heard the above but something somebody said to me the other day got me thinking. Apparently 1 in 3 of us will die prematurely from cancer. Now I know 78% of statistics are made up on the spot but hear me out.

I got to thinking about all the people I know who have died. Most have been from natural causes / old age but they don't count as it's not a premature. Of those I know who have passed prematurely I know of one suicide, one car accident, two heart attacks, one septicemia, two strokes, one brain hemorrhage, one cirrhosis and at least ten cancer cases. Can anyone here say they don't know at least a few friends, relatives or neighbours that have died from cancer? Definitely the biggest cause of premature death in my experience anyway.

So where did all this cancer come from anyhow? I don't remember hearing about as much cancer thirty years ago as today. Maybe fifty years ago people were dying from cancer and it was blamed on TB / pneumonia but not thirty years back, or twenty, or ten. With all the advances in medicine many diseases have been all but wiped out (in the western world anyhow) but cancer seems to be on the increase.

So what's changed? Pollution is on the way down so it's not that or are we only now seeing the results of the industrial revolution? I think that would have been affecting people in a more serious way before now. So how about what we eat? How has our diet changed in say, the last thirty years?

Processed food, lots of it. Ready made meals and sauces full of salt and sugar. Fruit and vegetables covered in pesticide and fertilisers. Meat that hasn't the time to grow naturally (another 'statistic' I heard was that a chicken fillet breast is 28 days from chick birth to plate) and also microwaved food. 'Nuking' a processed meal for two minutes and it coming out piping hot just can't be right. It's basically radiation, yeah?

So there you have it - is the way we eat today contributing to the rise of cancer? Food for thought anyhow...........

Your hypothesis kind of went haywire in that last paragraph. "**** it - I know! Microwaves!" Anything else?

And how can you make an entire opening post abotu the recent causes of cacner and not once mention cigarettes?

Bishop_Donal

People are eating a lot more horse these days. I'd say that's it.

Where To

There was the same amount of cancer years ago as there is now. The difference is people are living longer to die from it and there are more people around to die from it.

BUBBLE WRAP

MCMLXXV wrote: »

We've all heard the above but something somebody said to me the other day got me thinking. Apparently 1 in 3 of us will die prematurely from cancer. Now I know 78% of statistics are made up on the spot but hear me out.

I got to thinking about all the people I know who have died. Most have been from natural causes / old age but they don't count as it's not a premature. Of those I know who have passed prematurely I know of one suicide, one car accident, two heart attacks, one septicemia, two strokes, one brain hemorrhage, one cirrhosis and at least ten cancer cases. Can anyone here say they don't know at least a few friends, relatives or neighbours that have died from cancer? Definitely the biggest cause of premature death in my experience anyway.

So where did all this cancer come from anyhow? I don't remember hearing about as much cancer thirty years ago as today. Maybe fifty years ago people were dying from cancer and it was blamed on TB / pneumonia but not thirty years back, or twenty, or ten. With all the advances in medicine many diseases have been all but wiped out (in the western world anyhow) but cancer seems to be on the increase.

So what's changed? Pollution is on the way down so it's not that or are we only now seeing the results of the industrial revolution? I think that would have been affecting people in a more serious way before now. So how about what we eat? How has our diet changed in say, the last thirty years?

Processed food, lots of it. Ready made meals and sauces full of salt and sugar. Fruit and vegetables covered in pesticide and fertilisers. Meat that hasn't the time to grow naturally (another 'statistic' I heard was that a chicken fillet breast is 28 days from chick birth to plate) and also microwaved food. 'Nuking' a processed meal for two minutes and it coming out piping hot just can't be right. It's basically radiation, yeah?

So there you have it - is the way we eat today contributing to the rise of cancer? Food for thought anyhow...........

Op EVERYBODY is born with cancer cells, it's just a matter of something to triger them. That is where cancer comes from.

Seachmall

Maybe we're just better at diagnosing it? Or maybe our increased life expectancy has increased the likelihood of it (the longer you live the more ailments you're likely to get, and cancer is certainly a likely one). Or maybe other causes of death have become more treatable skewing the statistics.

I haven't been around long enough to have any relevant means of comparison but I'd like to see some statistics on it.

BUBBLE WRAP wrote: »

Op EVERYBODY is born with cancer cells, it's just a matter of something to triger them. That is where cancer comes from.

All cells* are potentially cancerous, it's when they lose their ability to control how often they replicate they become problematic.

*All cells that replicate through mitosis anyway, I think. I could be wrong.

Dave0301

It is a combination of things. These days people live longer and hence have more time to develop cancer. 100 years ago when live expectancy was less and health care was not as advanced you could die from a number of things that are relativity easy to treat nowadays.

That isn't to say that smoking and eating crap all day doesn't increase your chances of cancer, of course it will.

Fox_In_Socks

I am what I eat. I'm 1/3 potato so. Unknown % horse.:pac:

On topic, one of the reasons that cancers seem more prevalent these days is because people live longer, which means that they live longer to be effected by it. In the past, different illnesses might have killed you first, like TB, pneumonia, infections, but with the rise of antibiotics and various other drugs, these are treatable.

An example is Chernobyl. That area is now almost an animal refuge because there are no people there and the wild animals that live there, thrive, as they have naturally short lives, that they have reproduced or are killed/eaten before they succomb to cancers.

Big Nasty

Ikky Poo2 wrote: »

Your hypothesis kind of went haywire in that last paragraph. "**** it - I know! Microwaves!" Anything else?

Yes microwaves, and I also mentioned:

MCMLXXV wrote: »

Processed food, lots of it. Ready made meals and sauces full of salt and sugar. Fruit and vegetables covered in pesticide and fertilisers. Meat that hasn't the time to grow naturally (another 'statistic' I heard was that a chicken fillet breast is 28 days from chick birth to plate).

Ikky Poo2 wrote: »

And how can you make an entire opening post abotu the recent causes of cacner and not once mention cigarettes?

People have been smoking for thousands of years, it's not something that has changed in the last two / three decades.

Of course I agree that there are other factors too, I'm just wondering how big a part our diet plays in it.

Dave0301

BUBBLE WRAP wrote: »

Op EVERYBODY is born with cancer cells, it's just a matter of something to triger them. That is where cancer comes from.

Em that might be oversimplifying it a tad. What actually happens is that your cells mutate and lose their ability to reproduce correctly.

3ndahalfof6

I am a finger nail.

Pumpkinseeds

I think that its a combination of things. The processed food, stress, environmental pollution, lack of exercise, working long hours and just the general pressure of the world we live in.

wendell borton

Mitosis is?

Musefan

I thankfully don't know anyone at all, and have no relatives who died from cancer, or who have cancer at all come to think of it, on both my mam and my father's side.

Big Nasty

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

I think that its a combination of things. The processed food, stress, environmental pollution, lack of exercise, working long hours and just the general pressure of the world we live in.

Yeah, I can see stress / lack of exercise contributing too. We were a pretty laid back country 20 years ago but everyone is in a much bigger hurry these days which of course leads to stress. Also we don't have to walk twenty miles cross country to school anymore.

So stress; exercise and diet - i.e. lifestyle.

Seachmall

wendell borton wrote: »

Mitosis is?

When a cell replicates itself in it's entirety.

When it can't control that it replicates continuously and forms tumors.

3ndahalfof6

wendell borton wrote: »

Mitosis is?

Big belly, small back.

wolfpawnat

We live longer, stress more, live near all sorts of things that can mutate cell reproduction and above all else, we have a better medical system that can detect cancers. There was, I have little doubt, cancer in the times of all major civilisations, the big thing being, how could primitive cultures have detected them? Post Mortems are relatively new only really documented since the 1600's on as before that it was seen as taboo in Western culture. Also people in Egyptian and Aztec times were dying of tooth abscesses and spear wounds long before cancers killed them.

ashers22

I think about it a lot as it happens. I don't buy the cancer has been around for years excuse, or we're better at diagnosing it, or had been attributing it to other diseases all along. I definitely believe there are more premature deaths due to cancer now then twenty or thirty years ago and I do believe what we are ingesting is relative to our health and well being (whether it's in the air we breathe or the food we eat). My father died of cancer at 57, he never drank or smoked and exercised several times a week. I know lot of others who were taken by it too but in most other cases there were the "obvious" contributing factors of smoke or age related issues. I do feel however that as a species we have become more susceptible to it for some as of yet unknown reason.

Auldloon

Quick mental count and out of all the people I have known that have died (dozens) I can only think of 2 that died from cancer.
This thread also reminds me of a book I bought a few months ago as an aid to stopping smoking...gonna start it now.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Emperor-All-Maladies-Siddhartha-Mukherjee/dp/0007250924

BUBBLE WRAP

Seachmall wrote: »

Maybe we're just better at diagnosing it? Or maybe our increased life expectancy has increased the likelihood of it (the longer you live the more ailments you're likely to get, and cancer is certainly a likely one). Or maybe other causes of death have become more treatable skewing the statistics.

I haven't been around long enough to have any relevant means of comparison but I'd like to see some statistics on it.All cells* are potentially cancerous, it's when they lose their ability to control how often they replicate they become problematic.

*All cells that replicate through mitosis anyway, I think. I could be wrong.

Dave0301 wrote: »

It is a combination of things. These days people live longer and hence have more time to develop cancer. 100 years ago when live expectancy was less and health care was not as advanced you could die from a number of things that are relativity easy to treat nowadays.

That isn't to say that smoking and eating crap all day doesn't increase your chances of cancer, of course it will.

NERDS!!!!! :pac:

Ah no, thanks for setting it staright..

Lou.m

Different Cancers have different causes.

The common root is that all are a mutation in the cell that cause it to replicate again and again abnormally.

But this mutation can be caused by carcinogens in the air in burnt food or by a virus. There is a vaccine now for a certain virus that can cause cervical cancer.

It can also be genetic predisposition. Certain types of cancer tend to run in families.

Lifestyle is a factor for certain cancers. And yes the longer you live the more likely it is you might get it.

There are all these different doctors who claim this and that.

I think Japan and much of Asia have the lowest rates whilst still having a long life span.

Japan also has a top notch health service though....they catch cancer fast.

Also they exercise and eat well.

I have a Japanese friend who lives in Tokyo...she had a tumor in her throat...apparently after the Nuclear disaster cancer rates and other illnesses have gone up drastically.

But everyone has access to good healthcare ...that reduces the rate of death from cancer.

Also they seem to have a higher rate of throat cancer there ...it has been linked to consuming salted or fried fish...(but not baked fresh fish or broiled fresh fish) .

China has higher rates of stomach cancer due to the amount of fried dishes they eat (heated oils apparently no good).

In the west we have bowel breast etc. Breast is thought to be influenced by the fact that now women are exposed to very high levels of estrogen throughout their lives due to diet and environment which increases your risk. Also a lack of fibre and green veg which help eliminate excess estrogen.

The general advice i think is ...don't fry things...if you use oil don't heat it. Avoid fried crisps etc..don't consume too much soy. Eat fresh...eat fibre and greens fruit etc. Exercise daily. If you eat meat and fish....consume in moderation and fresh.

mitosis

Seachmall wrote: »

*All cells that replicate through mitosis anyway, I think. I could be wrong.

What????

mitosis

3ndahalfof6 wrote: »

Big belly, small back.

Ah, lads

Chemical Burn

I don't remember eating a sexy legend ??

castletownman

You are what you eat?

I don't remember eating a tank

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

MCMLXXV wrote: »

Yes microwaves, and I also mentioned:

People have been smoking for thousands of years, it's not something that has changed in the last two / three decades.

Of course I agree that there are other factors too, I'm just wondering how big a part our diet plays in it.

No, but they have been smoking a lot more, and cigaretts are also a bti stronger. It's also one of the main causes of cancer in the last half-century, regardless of how long it's been in existance.

SicklySweet

Cancer could simply be on the rise because we've cured a lot of the other killer diseases (though i'm going back years and years) and our medical field has evolved so we're only sick with the flu/food poisoning etc for 3 days instead of dying from it. Since we're all born with cancer, the longer we live, the more likely the cancer will be triggered. Anything from food, drinks, cigarettes, pollution can trigger cancer.

tl;dr: Since we're not dying from a lot more diseases, cancer will most likely get us.

This is just simply my opinion on it.

steddyeddy

Food definatly has lead to our species becoming more susceptible to certain diseases. Certain food additives are thought to play a part in mutating DNA, which can cause cancer. Another disease, diabetes type 2, was unheard of a couple of centuries ago.