FAT AND CANCER

Back in the early 1980s, the United States government reported that cancer is related to what we do or do not eat. In a 2-year, 1-million-dollar, 445-page study, the National Academy of Sciences validated what many nutritionally minded physicians had been saying for years: There is a definite link between diet and health. In their study, Diet, Nutrition, and Cancer, the Academy concluded that eating certain food-stuffs can increase, or decrease, the incidence of cancer.

More than 1,000 Americans die of cancer every day. Simple dietary changes may prevent an estimated 60 percent of those cancer deaths in women, and 40 percent in men. In other words, roughly half of those 1,000-plus deaths each and every day can be prevented by diet.

The exact mechanisms by which diet alters the path of cancer remain shrouded in mystery. But we do know that there are at least two steps involved: initiation and activation.

The nucleus of every cell in your body contains DNA. Short for deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA is a specialized protein that serves as the instruction manual telling each and every cell what to do and how to do it. Your DNA is also your body’s “master plan,” ensuring that all the cells in your body work in concert to promote health and well-being.

A normal cell is initiated into a cancerous mode when a carcinogen (a cancer-causing agent) alters the cell’s DNA. In other words, the carcinogen rewrites the cell’s instruction manual.

Any number of things can be carcinogens, including fat, certain substances in foods, chemicals, ultraviolet light, and radiation. The newly initiated cell is harmless—at first. It may remain dormant for minutes, days, years, or decades. In fact, it’s quite likely that many of your body cells are initiated. But you don’t know they’re there because they’re not bothering you. And they won’t bother you unless they’re activated, or given the go signal. Activators wake up the sleeping initiated cell, turning it malignant. Activated, malignant cells can multiply without restraint, using
the nutrients in your body to grow beyond the bounds of reason, crowding, invading, and strangling parts of your body.

What substances can activate a dormant initiated cell? We have identified many activators, and there are undoubtedly others. One that we all come in contact with is dietary fat. Fat is both an initiator and an activator.

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