Difference in Gastrointestinal Cancer Risk and Mortality by Dietary Patterns | Hacker News Reader

Difference in Gastrointestinal Cancer Risk and Mortality by Dietary Patterns

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21 pointsgnabgib30 comments

> The healthy dietary pattern was characterized by a higher intake of fruits, whole grains, legumes, vegetables, milk, and other dairy products, whereas the unhealthy dietary pattern was characterized by a higher intake of red and processed meat, alcohol, and both refined and sugar-sweetened beverages.

Can't help but feel that the results would've been more informative if they excluded alcohol. We already know alcohol causes cancer, with this setup we can't really tell how much of the difference was the food and how much was the drinking.

People who drink expensive whiskey for sure live longer than people who drink cheap whiskey

Wealth being correlated with better health outcomes is nothing new either

Strange that it's not controlled for then!

higher methanol / "heads and tails" consumption?

Unhealthy characterized by red meat? When are are going to move away from the stigma that saturated fats cause health issues

“Red meat causes cancer” from self-reported diets of cheeseburgers and other processed foods.

This study lumps read meat with processed foods and alcohol consumption. Not much to go on for conclusions at that rate

Because saturated fats do cause health issues? Every large health organization recommends limiting intake of saturated fats for health reasons

Based off bad science paid for by big sugar.

That's not the case at all. Maybe you're thinking of unsaturated fats?

Big sugar paid Harvard et al to point the CVD boner at fats instead of sugar, namely saturated. Wrong. Dr. Mary Enid correctly identified trans fats as the real problam. Funny that sugars will cause fat Genesis. A body can not accommodation make. We're suppose to hunger. Good things happen when we fast. Even the Bible gets gluttony right. This was back in a day in age when you might eat a single meal a day.

You're weighing the consensus of the medical community against a single doctor who claims that saturated fat can cure AIDS?

That is not a well reasoned position to take.

AIDS really has nothing to do with this discussion. Most scientists believe in imaginary deities. So what? Does that mean God exists? I doubt it. Moving on.

Consensus isn't science. By consensus, then olive oil is "high in saturated fats."

The major problem with saturated fats is there is no problem. There's no mechanism to explain it. It's just an association.

Dr Enid correctly identified trans fats as unhealthy decades before the consensus caught up.

afaik the current understanding is that red meat contains carcinogens and that this is not related to saturated fat.

Just eat it in moderation.

never, because they know exactly what they're doing, and they do it anyway.

It may help that I hate soft drinks and don't like alcohol. But I'll never give up bread, pizza, pasta and chocolate.

Anyhow, better n happy years than (n + x) miserable years, and where x remains unknown.

> But I'll never give up bread, pizza, pasta and chocolate.

Give it a few years, and your pancreas might very well come knocking with type II news.

At that point, the 'x' in your equation will carry a lot more weight than you might be able to reckon right now, especially if you have children by then.

50/50 on that. Had a near miss there. Borderline type 2. Blasted weight down from 115kg to 65kg and changed diet.

Now I still eat pizza, pasta, bread and chocolate all the time. Just reasonable amounts of it as part of a balanced diet. And not the crap shovelled out by fast food restaurants.

GJ! Insulin resistance is much more a function of total caloric load and expenditures than composition. It's called metabolic syndrome, not high glycemic index syndrome. You reworked your lifestyle and metabolism and came back into the "zone" before you fell off the cliff.

How much better do you feel?

I went from climbing into my car to climbing mountains so definitely better :)

The composition has a strong effect on total caloric load. I was a binge eater on high carb but not on low carb.

All things in moderation, including moderation.

the biggie is colon cancer...regular screening should prevent that, so no need to eliminate tasty food.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/stomach-c... suggests Mongolian, Japanese and Korean diets are the worst. What do their diets have in common? High traditional intake of distilled alcohol, pickled foods, and meat. IIRC pickled foods are alkaline and weaken the stomach's acidic environ, exposing stomach lining to compounding damage from alcohol, chilli, etc.

Pickles usually contain vinegar for preservation, which is highly acidic. So they are often acidic, not alcaline, and won't weaken anything

OK so pH from pickling per se is out... but highly salted foods can be basic. Seawater is basic and Japanese consume loads of fish. Anyway, even if that's the the cause, it's the only similarity I can think of between those three worst performing diets. Maybe also consumption of ferns?

Salt does not affect the pH of a solution. pH is the ratio of H to OH atoms in a solution, salt is NaCl, which provides neither.

Seawater is alkaline, not acidic due to dissolved coral structures (carbonate hardness). Acidification of seawater is a major concern for coral life since they can't deposit calcium into their skeletons below like 7.4 pH

Aha! Makes sense. So why might those three countries have the highest stomach cancer incidence?

I don't think I'm qualified to make those assessments

The Japanese and Koreans aren't dying early though.

Japan is a blue zone.

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