News
Top blogs
Podcast
Topics
Events
A new study published yesterday looks at the PREDIMED trial where participants either got a low-fat diet (ouch!) or a higher-fat Mediterranean diet (with plenty of extra nuts or olive oil). After five years the risk of breast cancer was much higher in the group told to eat a low-fat diet. The higher-fat Mediterranean diet apparently protected against cancer.
Media
LATimes: Diet heavy on olive oil cuts breast cancer risk by 62%, study says
The Graph
Here’s the graph over the number of people who got breast cancer in the three groups. “Control” is the low-fat diet, the other two are Mediterranean diets with extra nuts or extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO).
Comment
A low-fat diet may promote cancer. Very likely the cause could be that low-fat diets are higher in carbs, increasing blood glucose and the hormone insulin, which drives cell proliferation.
This of course completely contradicts the old and failed idea that low-fat diets are supposed to be healthy. This means a lot of cognitive dissonance for people who still believe in low fat. It’s possible to see that in the discussions of a possible mechanism with magic cancer-protecting substances in olive oil.
It’s just like the French Paradox. They traditionally ate loads of fat and were very heart healthy. So people said it must be due to magic heart-protecting substances in red wine. Yeah right.
Likely this awkward antioxidant/polyphenol speculation is 99% pure BS. There’s a much simpler and more likely explanation.
Natural fat (like olive oil) is good for us – whether we’re talking about heart health, cancer or weight management. And too much refined carbs, especially white flour and pure sugar, is really bad.
Earlier
Here’s earlier super-exciting findings from the PREDIMED trial:
More on Mediterranean diets:
France may have a good score in the cardiovascular area, but is one of the top countries of prostate cancer incidence / capita, and is the top cheese consuming country. (Cheese is the dairy with the highest casein levels). Not proven causality of course, but I find it an interesting observation...
http://www.wcrf.org/int/cancer-facts-figures/data-specific-cancers/pr...
- France I mentioned, as high in prostate cancer, also I believe the cooking with most cream and cheese of mediterranean countries. The whole country is far from being a mediterranean style country in eating habits though.
Difficult to find a single definition also for this type of cuisine.
While epidemiologists keep looking for something in the water and air, I have long thought that the ubiquitous so-called "healthy" diet that they practice is to blame.
What will the pharmaceutical companies do then? See: http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/miracleindustry/americas-most-admi...
I don't known what the huge costs of the obesity and diabetes epidemics are or how they are calculated, but I bet they don't include all of the costs as the damage of the diseases of civilization are vast and effect nearly everything.
http://www.dairyinfo.gc.ca/index_e.php?s1=dff-fcil&s2=cons&...
Iceland and France have similar dairy intakes yet have "different" rates of prostate cancer (one location in France is basically the same as Iceland).
Personally, I'm not a big believer in EVOO. If anything, this study could indicate that less carbohydrate content is better, and EVOO could simply be a fat they used. (Same with nuts -- nuts and EVOO have to replace calories, which likely replace carbs.) Maybe they should have had everyone use lard and beef fat to see what would happen. Make that the fourth prong. Of course, when that came out to be the best prong, they wouldn't know what to do with the results.
Here are the results :
Results After a median follow-up of 4.8 years, we identified 35 confirmed incident cases of breast cancer. Observed rates (per 1000 person-years) were 1.1 for the Mediterranean diet with extra-virgin olive oil group, 1.8 for the Mediterranean diet with nuts group, and 2.9 for the control group. The multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios vs the control group were 0.32 (95% CI, 0.13-0.79) for the Mediterranean diet with extra-virgin olive oil group and 0.59 (95% CI, 0.26-1.35) for the Mediterranean diet with nuts group. In analyses with yearly cumulative updated dietary exposures, the hazard ratio for each additional 5% of calories from extra-virgin olive oil was 0.72 (95% CI, 0.57-0.90).
They even state the following: "Nevertheless, these results need confirmation by long-term studies with a higher number of incident cases."
So, it's an interesting result, but I wouldn't run out and buy EVOO and start guzzling it down.
By googling there seems to be some evidence of IGF-1 hormone (linked to casein) boosting cancers, which does not feel wrong given that milk is made to boost growth of calfs, thus accelerating cell-splitting.
Still there is nothing conclusive obviously.
Another factor that could affect the prostrate specifically is the calcium in dairy. Too much calcium without sufficient fat soluble vitamins K2, D3 and retinol (to activate the matrix GLA protein) can result in calcium buildup in soft tissue. The prostrate seems especially prone to calcification in the event of inflammation from time to time (likely due to the topology and size of the prostrate), and the calcification may make the prostrate more likely to become cancerous. I have seen studies reporting unusual links between calcium consumption and prostrate cancer and studies suggest dietary vitamin K2 (MK-7 form) reduces risk of prostrate cancer.
Watch out for Ricotta in that case - it's a "whey-cheese" :)
What is the current explanation and what can I expect going forward. I would like to continue with this way of eating.
Here is one of the risks listed: "Eating a high-fat diet. In the largest study of its kind, researchers from the National Cancer Institute found that women who consumed the most fat—regardless of what type—were 15% more likely to develop breast cancer than women who ate the least fat".
Apparently, this is still a widely believed risk for breast cancer.
I read so much conflicting information and evidence/studies. It's exhausting and confusing to understand what is truly best for my health.