Originally Posted by
Fulmar
As I say, I completely trust the advice of Cancer Research UK and have good reason to do so. I also know that any links to do with foods are incredibly difficult to prove either way. The generation of a cancer in any individual person is incredibly complex as at the end of the day, it stems from a mutation in a single cell. These mutations, that occur as cells divide, frequently occur in all of us but generally, they are identified and knocked out by the immune system. We each have micro tumours going about, it is just that we do not know it and most don't develop into a full blown cancer. As one ages, the mutations increase while the efficiency of the immune system in detecting and knocking them for six decreases. This is why one of the greatest cancer risk factors is simply that of aging and none of us can do anything about that. Of course, there are the well known factors that we all know about that have been proved to increase risk and are (sometimes) connected with particular cancers.
As regards whether to eat animal products or not, it is worthwhile remembering if one is unduly worried about it that human beings evolved as omnivores and we each carry in our jaw the evidence for this in the form of a pair of canine teeth. Also, cancers occur in all vertebrates and have even been identified in invertebrates.
I was once told by an oncologist that if 'they' ie the medics and scientists knew of a particular and for definite risk factor or specifically, food you should or should not eat to protect, prevent, treat cancer, did I not think that 'they' would be shouting it from the roof tops? They would, as it would save them an absolute fortune and solve a lot of the problems of the NHS in one stroke!
At the end of the day, one has to personally weigh up the risks etc and decide what to do or not to do and for me, like I said at the beginning, it CR UK that I trust as they exist only to save lives that are currently being placed in turmoil and sacrificed to cancer.