Childhood Nutrition’s Critical Role in Cancer
Please note that this section contains my personal notes from my readings on this topic.
———————————————————————————————————–
Not only do processed foods and fast foods often contain dangerous trans fats and other additives, but they also can have high levels of acrylamides. When processed foods are baked and friend at high temperatures, these cancer-causing chemical compounds are produced. Many processed foods, such as chips, french fries, and sugar-coated breakfast cereals, are rich in acrylamides. Acrlyamides also form in foods you bake until brown or fry at home; they do not form in foods that are steamed or boiled.
There was worldwide alarm in the scientific community in 2002 after researchers announced that many of the foods children eat contain high levels of these potent cancer-causing compounds. Acrylamides cause genetic mutations, leading to a wide variety of cancers in lab animals, including breast and uterine cancer. It has not been definitely shown that acrylamides are a major factor in the development of human cancers, but most cancer experts working in this field presume that it does. This offers another reason to avoid consumption of overly heated and processed foods.
– Disease-Proof Your Child (2005) by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, M.D.; page 17
Growing Cells Are More Susceptible To Damaging Influences
The growing body, with its dividing cells, is at greater risk when exposed to all types of negative and toxic influences. In adults, our valuable genetic material (DNA) is would up in a tight ball, like the rubber bands on the inside of a golf ball. When we are young and cells are replicating and growing, the DNA unwinds, exposing more of its surface. This makes it more susceptible to damage from toxic exposure. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, infants and toddlers have a ten times greater cancer risk than adults when exposed to gene-damaging chemicals. In a similar manner, an unhealthy diet can do substantially more damage to a young body than to an adult one. The earlier in life, the greater the potential for damage.
For example, breast cancer is associated with high body weight and obesity. Of particular interest is the fact that body weight in the twenty years prior to the time cancer is diagnosed has not been consistently correlated with increased risk. It is body weight much earlier in life that showed the consistent effect. Some researchers conclude that dieting in later life may be too late.
– Disease-Proof Your Child (2005) by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, M.D.; page 79
Childhood Exposure Has the Largest Impact on Adult Health
The things we are exposed to earlier in life are crucial to our later health… The link between low plant fiber diets and higher consumption of animal products many before a cancer finally appears is illustrated by the changing diet in Japan and the growing incidence of colon cancer. The intake of Total Dietary Fiber (TDF) was evaluated from data from the National Nutrition Survey in Japan for 41 years beginning in 1947. TDF intake decreased rapidly from 27.4 grams per day in 1947 to 15.8 grams in 1963. Fat-intake increased rapidly from 18 grams in 1950 to 56.6 grams in 1987. Of significance in this carefully done study was that the increased occurrence of colon cancer had a 23- to 24- year lag after the heightened consumption of animal products began. Apparently, what the Japanese people did 25 years earlier had the strongest effect on inducing cancer, not what they ate ten years or even twenty years earlier. Those with the highest consumption of plant fiber in their childhood had the lowest incidence of colon cancer.
Recent studies have also found eating fruit during childhood had powerful effects to protect against cancer in later life. A sixty-year study of 4,999 participants found that those who consumed more fruit in their childhood (the highest quartile) were 38% less likely to develop cancer as adults.
Diets rich in meat and dairy are powerfully implicated as cancer promoters. Processed, picked, smoked, or barbequed meats are even more strongly linked to cancer. Separate studies from Europe and the U.S. found the same results: those who eat meat daily have a three- to four- fold increase incidence of colon, esophageal, and stomach cancers, and the risks are more severe the younger in age people begin these practices.
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a perfect example of a childhood-induced adult cancer. It occurs predominantly in populations consuming heavily salted products, preserved foods, and hot spices such as hot chili sauce. Salted fish, processed meats, and preserved foods contain nitrites and nitrosomines, a known animal carcinogen. A meticulous study added up the total amount of nitrates and nitrosomines from all dietary sources through various ages in the life of 375 cases of NPC and 327 controls without the disease.
They found that the intake of nitrosomines and nitrite as a child was predictive of later cancer, though the consumption of these compounds as an adult was not associated with an increased occurrence of NPC. The intake of green vegetables during childhood was shown to be protective. The study conculded that the risk and incidence of NPC was accounted for by the higher levels of nitrite and nitrosomine compounds consumed during childhood. The growing body, with more rapidly dividing cells, is more sensitive to damage from chemical compounds; the cells become dysplastic (an abnormal, precancerous condition), and over the years turn cancerous. Many years later, the cancer becomes detectable.
– Disease-Proof Your Child (2005) by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, M.D.; pages 81 – 83
Much more on these topics can be found in
Disease-Proof Your Child: Feeding Kids Right
Additional Content in This Section:
Related Content:
*****************
The information contained throughout this blog / website should not be used as a substitute for the medical care and advice of your pediatrician / physician.
