The diet/cancer connection

[d3cimat3d]

Does anyone have any ideas as to why the countries along the equator have the lowest rates of cancer? It's obviously something in their diet but does anyone know exactly what it is? Is it spicy foods? Tea? What is it? :confused:

[Loki]

There is a clear link between cardiovascular disease / heart attacks and the Western diet - which is very fatty and meaty. However, I'm not sure about the cancer. Would be worth looking into. What types of cancer, I wonder.

[Psychonaut]

Aside from diet, it could be two things:

Smoking: what are the smoking rates like in these countries? I notice that in the developed world cancer rates are higher. This could have to do with our financial ability to buy tobacco easier.
Longevity: same deal. Maybe they're not living long enough to get cancer.

[Loki]

One element that could play a role in the statistics is the longevity of the respective nations. In many of those African countries, for example, people die in their thirties and forties - probably before the age when cancer normally sets in.

[Basil]

Actually I believe they have the shittest cancer diagnostics. The more advanced diagnostics, the higher cancer rates. People just die not knowing from what they actually suffer.

[Peasant]

The shite they put in our food, thats what. Either that or curry and spicy food is as awesome as it tastes.

[d3cimat3d]

Longevity: same deal. Maybe they're not living long enough to get cancer.
[/LIST]

The life expectancy in Morocco is 71.29178 years & 72.38905 years in Algeria. Both Moroccans & Algerians are notorious shisha smokers and despite all the tobacco they inhale, they still have 3x less incidents of cancer than the U.S.A.


The shite they put in our food, thats what. Either that or curry and spicy food is as awesome as it tastes.

Yes, both curry & spicy foods supposedly have anti-cancer properties.


An extract found in the bright yellow curry spice turmeric can kill off cancer cells, scientists have shown.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8328377.stm


Cells were exposed to increasing concentrations of capsaicin for 24
hours and apoptosis was measured by TUNEL assay. Capsaicin
induced apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner, with the
percentage of apoptotic cells ranging from 3% at 1  10
4 mol/L
capsaicin to 75% at 5  10
4 mol/L capsaicin for PC-3 cells, and
from 9% at 1  10
4 mol/L capsaicin to 93% at 5  10
4 mol/L in
LNCaP cells

Source (http://www.erbeofficinali.org/dati/nacci/studi/Capsaicina%20(peperoncino)%20induce%20APOPTOSI%20i n%20cellule%20del%20cancro%20della%20PROSTATA%20si a%20androgeno-positive%20che%20androgeno-negative.pdf)

[Loki]

I eat a good curry at least once a week. Definite health benefits to be had from it.

[Fortis in Arduis]

Food additives, longevity, excess, detection rates, toxic chemicals.

It all makes sense.

[The Lawspeaker]

The thing is that our West also has higher (air) pollution and we have a lot of additives in our diet. Apart from that it probably is longevity ( a lot of them die of AIDS before they can die of cancer) and diagnostics.

[Tabiti]

Cancer likes food and too many calories. The problem with western society are not the products like eggs, red meats, milk, butter, etc, but their increased consumption. Plus combining these very concentrated foods with new ones like white flour, refined sugar, hydrogenated vegetable oils, etc... Stress, way of life without physical activities and pollution have their contribution too.
The European in the past - less food (mostly bread and vegetables), much movement...