Low-Fat Diet Won''t Stop Cancer or Heart Disease

[AGBF]

Study Finds Low-Fat Diet Won''t Stop Cancer or Heart Disease

What can I say except, "butter is bad for you...margarine is worse...no butter is! Margarine! Butter! Margarine!"


article


Deb

 

[monarch64]

Thanks for posting this article, AGBF. I''ve been following a low-fat diet for years, and back in September converted to a vegetarian diet. Colon cancer runs in my family, and since my dad was diagnosed 3 years ago I have been doing a lot of research to see how diet can maybe help me beat it. I know that just eating a low-fat diet doesn''t prevent disease, and this article reinforces that fact, but I will always do the best I can to maintain a healthy diet anyway. I hope others don''t read this article and take the attitude that "might as well eat it, it''s gonna kill me anyway!" regarding their diet. Healthy eating is still a good way to keep your engine running strong, disease or no disease. Preventative measures such as getting routine physicals, or in my case, colonoscopies starting when I turn 30 (50 for most, but I have the hereditary thing against me), mammograms, and other tests go hand-in-hand with a healthy lifestyle so that if or when one runs into the beginning symptoms of some disease they can hopefully catch it early.

My dad is one of those people who started getting symptoms and let the disease go for over two years before seeking treatment. Luckily, colon cancer is one of the slower-growing cancers, and after a ton of surgery over the last couple years he is in remission, but at a price: he has to wear a permanent colostomy bag due to most of his insides being removed and is constantly in fear of getting another positive test back any time he goes to the doctor. He insisted on eating a diet full of processed, high fat crap and red meat, drank alcohol and smoked (still smoking to this day). Do we know for sure that all that gave him cancer? Nope. But will I try to avoid things I know aren''t naturally meant for humans to consume anyway? Heck yes.

 

[Mara]

I actually never thought that eating healthier means that I won't get cancer or heart disease. There is always something new in the news about what does or doesn't help X, Y or Z in terms of health or living longer or getting diseases or not. But I feel better when I eat healthier and I know that my body is happier than if I was to eat processed or high-fat items all the time. Does it mean I don't eat real butter or drink real coke sometimes? No ... but I try to eat more natural oils, nuts, fibers, and less processed items, sugars etc etc. I think a healthy lifestyle can have more positives than can be measured by tests. The human body is a mysterious machine!!

 

[njc]

I may be wrong, but it is my understanding that the study concluded that a low-fat diet doesnt prevent cancer/heart disease when started later in life.

Now im rounding figures here, but the test subjects were 50-80 yrs old and the study last 8-10 years. I dont know if this means the subjects were 40-70 when they started or not, that wasnt clear. So what i got from it was a low-fat diet started at the age of 40 or 50 doesnt decrease your chances.

Now im with everyone else that i always take these things with a grain of salt because next month they will be saying the opposite. I also think that a healthy, well-balanced diet is always a the best thing regardless. I feel genetics has just as much of a part of *some* cancers and heart disease as anything else. I say some because i now know 2 people with horrible lung cancer and they are/were smokers.