Recently, our nation’s cancer authorities celebrated the American Cancer Society’s report that the total number of cancer deaths declined by 3,014 (a whopping 0.5 percent), from 556,902 in 2003 to 553,888 in 2004. Biomedical researchers are certain to request more funding in their quest for the magic cancer pill.
Yet, cancer, like heart disease and other chronic illnesses, is a largely self-inflicted condition. Two years ago, the same organization estimated that 62 percent of all cancer deaths could be prevented by regular screenings, exercise and quitting tobacco and meat products.
Smoking is associated chiefly with increased risk of lung cancer. But scores of scientific studies have linked meat consumption with cancers of the stomach, liver, kidneys, pancreas, gallbladder, colon, rectum, esophagus, lungs, breast, uterus, cervix, ovaries, prostate and testicles.
The mother of all such studies, the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), involves 521,483 individuals in 10 different European countries with widely varying diets. Since 1992, EPIC has published nearly 80 scientific papers on the relationship between diet and cancer.
Diverting a small fraction of the millions currently spent on the magic cancer pill toward nutrition education and healthful plant-based meals in schools would work magic in vanquishing this dreaded disease.
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