For over ten years I have been very interested in diet and nutrition to the point that I sometimes think about going back to school for it. I read nutrition books, magazines, and keep up with some of the research as it comes out. Over the years I have read about how the incidence of certain cancers are so much lower in China and other Asian countries. Historically Asia has had a low incidence of breast cancer, but that is changing. Recent studies have shown that as the Eastern diet, which is high in soy, rice, fruits and vegetables, has been replaced by the meat-laden Western diet the incidence of breast cancer is rising.
In the current issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute the statistics are worrying; researchers estimate that the incidence of breast cancer in China which currently affects 10 to 60 out of 100,000 women will be more than 100 cases out of 100,000 by the year 2021. A Japanese study in the International Journal of Cancer shows that their traditional soy products helps prevent breast cancer. In a controlled study researchers found that women who consumed the most soy products had roughly a 25% reduction in breast cancer risk. In another study the results showed that soy products appear to reduce breast cancer risk provided they are consumed early in life.I am not so biased towards a vegetarian diet that I can't entertain the idea that it's not all about meat, or that it's not even all about diet. Health and wellness is still not well understood. I am concerned, however, that the Western diet has gotten so skewed towards choosing foods for pleasure and away from what the studies continue to say: lower meat consumption, increase fruits and vegetables and whole grains, and eat more soy and plant based proteins.
~Linos E, Spanos D, Rosner BA, et al. Effect of reproductive and demographic changes on breast cancer incidence in China: a modeling analysis. J Natl Cancer Inst 2008;100:1352-60.
~Suzuki T, Matsuo K, Tsunoda N, et al. Effect of soybean on breast cancer according to receptor status: a case-control study in Japan. Int J Cancer 2008;123:1674-80.
2 comments:
I definitely think you should go back to school for it. You really seem to love it and you're good at it. :) Might be nice to spice things up a little and give yourself more options, no?
Yes, it's always in the back of my mind. I think, given the current economic situation, leaving my current job to go back to school might not be wise, but going back to school would be so much fun. I'd have to find a way to keep health insurance and I'd have to be sure that any job I took with my new degree would actually pay more than what I'm getting now. You know I'm not one to just leap off a bridge without first checking out the terrain below.
You know, I once talked with Pouran about this (she's a registered dietitian) and she said it was actually very frustrating. She would attempt to help chronically ill patients change their diets and they wouldn't want to do it and were very uncooperative. This certainly would not be appealing to me.
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