The Cancer Recovery Eating Plan by Daniel W. Nixon M.D

Author:Daniel W. Nixon, M.D.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-12-29T16:00:00+00:00

F AT AND C ANCER

Dietary fat provides energy for the body and assists in the metabolism of vitamins A, D, E, and K. The problem with fat is that most of us eat much more than is good for us. Even fruits and vegetables naturally contain some fat. Bread also contains fat. So you really don’t have to add fat or eat meat to get enough fat in the diet.

Fat appears to have a dual role in cancer. It may act both as a promoter of cancer and as a modulator of the growth of existing cancer. Breast cancer has been extensively studied in this regard, and some of the findings are covered in depth in the chapter on breast cancer.

One reason fat is linked to cancer goes back to the problem of too many calories. If you’ve ever tried counting calories to lose weight, you’re well aware that those little dabs of butter and dribbles of salad oil are packed with calories. A gram of protein or carbohydrate contains 4 calories, but a gram of fat contains 9 calories.

Because dietary fat is the leading cause of too many calories in the diet, I recommend that people focus not on how many calories they are taking in, but rather on reducing fats. When we turn later to starting your eating plan, we will talk about dietary fat instead of calories, and will check our progress by counting grams of fat, not calories.

In addition to its high caloric content, fat harbors certain fatty acids that, in the laboratory, have been shown to stimulate cancer cell growth. This is explained further in the chapter on breast cancer.

Scientists have debated for decades about the relative importance in cancer of fat alone versus the calories in fat. A low-fat, low-calorie diet can inhibit the development of certain types of tumors and can also slow the growth of established tumors in animals. The reverse is also true; a high-fat, high-calorie diet boosts the development and growth of such tumors in the laboratory. Similarly, a low-fat but high-calorie diet (that is, a diet with a high proportion of calories from carbohydrates) has also been associated with tumor stimulation in animals, but the value of these findings in humans has not been studied.

Interestingly, such studies have also shown that animals not only have fewer tumors when fed a low-calorie diet but also have a longer life span than animals fed a high-calorie diet. It is almost as if the high-calorie diets drive cellular processes faster, to the point that overall life is shortened. This “metabolic overload” is another way to explain the problems of overnutrition.

Because we don’t know yet if the types of fat (saturated, unsaturated, omega-3 fatty acids, and so on) make more or less difference in cancer, current recommendations are to reduce total fat to reduce cancer risk. However, you are no doubt aware that studies of the relationship between fat intake and cardiovascular disease have shown that saturated fat, which is primarily found in foods from animal sources, should be avoided.

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