Pancreatic Cancer | 06/29/2009 10:30 am

Want to Reduce Your Pancreatic Cancer Risk? Cut the Fat – Literally

New study shows that increased level of animal fat may be linked to disease that has plagued Patrick Swayze, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Steve Jobs.

By The Staff at wowOwow.com

Now you have another reason to think twice about gobbling down that greasy hamburger.

New research from the National Cancer Institute shows that people who eat a high-fat diet — particularly when much of that fat comes from animal products like dairy and meat — are at greater risk for developing pancreatic cancer.

"Our study demonstrated a positive association between dietary intake of total fat, particularly fat from animal sources," researcher Rachael Stolzenberg-Solomon told WebMD. "The strongest associations we observed were from meat and dairy products."

The survey studied more than half-a-million U.S. adults for six years. In that time, 865 of the men and 472 of the women were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and those who ate a lot of fat got it regularly from animal fat. In fact, people with the highest fat intake were 23 percent more likely to get pancreatic cancer than those who kept their fat intake at a minimum. Those who ingested the most saturated fats were 36 percent more likely to fall victim to the disease. Men who consumed the highest amount of total fats had a 53 percent higher relative rate of pancreatic cancer than men with low fat intake, while women who eat more fat had a 23 percent higher rate of the disease.

Pancreatic cancer is considered very deadly, since it’s hard to diagnose early on. In 2008, about 38,000 people fell victim to this kind of cancer; and about 6 percent of all cancer deaths that year were attributed to it. It’s the fourth most common cancer in men and the fifth most common in women in the U.S., usually develops in people over 50 and is more common among heavy smokers.

High-profile people such as actor Patrick Swayze, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Apple CEO Steve Jobs have all battled the disease.

5 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

If the people mentioned above ate a lot of fat, it must have gone to their pancreas because they were not fat people.

By Judy K. on 06/29/2009 12:09 pm

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That’s true! Patrick Swayze blames his smoking (which he still does) and drinking. But what about the others?

By Laura Ward on 06/29/2009 3:12 pm

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On the one hand, I don’t like to pooh-pooh the results of new health studies, as ignoring such information can have devastating consequences. But on the other, it seems like everything is bad for you. An exaggeration, to be sure, but not by too much.

By James the Game on 06/29/2009 11:55 pm

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meat is pretty bad for most human bodies, even in small quantities.

the more people eat meat, the higher the incidence of most diseases becomes: heart disease, high cholesterol, obesity, hypertension, cancer, stroke, diabetes…

add in the fact that the animals are pumped full of antibiotics, bad food themselves, growth hormones, and pharmeceutical drugs, and basically you are eating a slab of fat, cholesterol, drugs and chemicals.

in addition, most people cook their meat until "well done" or prefer fried foods, and this increases the amount of carcinogens in the meat dramatically - which in turn raises the risk of cancer and other diseases.

http://www.thechinastudy.com/about.html

instead of taking these tiny, short-term studies seriously everytime they come out, i focus on the longest nutrition study ever conducted, the link above: The China Study.

an excerpt from the website is below. I HIGHLY recommend this book to every human being who eats food ;)

The research project culminated in a 20-year partnership of Cornell University, Oxford University, and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, a survey of diseases and lifestyle factors in rural China and Taiwan. More commonly known as the China Study, “this project eventually produced more than 8000 statistically significant associations between various dietary factors and disease.”

The findings? “People who ate the most animal-based foods got the most chronic disease … People who ate the most plant-based foods were the healthiest and tended to avoid chronic disease. These results could not be ignored,” said Dr. Campbell.

In The China Study, Dr. Campbell details the connection between nutrition and heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, and also its ability to reduce or reverse the risk or effects of these deadly illnesses. The China Study also examines the source of nutritional confusion produced by powerful lobbies, government entities, and irresponsible scientists.

The China Study is not a diet book. Consumers are bombarded with conflicting messages regarding health and nutrition; the market is flooded with popular titles like The Atkins Diet and The South Beach Diet. The China Study cuts through the haze of misinformation and delivers an insightful message to anyone living with cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and those concerned with the effects of aging. Additionally, he challenges the validity of these low-carb fad diets and issues a startling warning to their followers.