book learning does a body good.

"The two most comprehensive attempts to deal with the question of cancer in isolated pops were in The Natural History of Cancer, published in 1908, and The Mortality of Cancer Throughout the World, published in 1915. In Fiji, among 120,000 aboriginals, there were only two recorded deaths from malignant tumors. In Borneo, Dr. Pagel had been in practice for 10 years and never saw a case. In the US, the proportional number of cancer deaths rose dramatically--in NY, from 32 per 1000 deaths in 1864, to 67 in 1900. In Phillie, from 31 in 1861, to 70 in 1904.

The absence of malignant cancer in isolated pops prompted the question about why cancer did develop elsewhere. One early hypothesis was that meat-eating was the problem, and that primitive pops were protected from cancer by eating mostly vegetarian diets. But this failed to explain why malignancies were prevalent among the Hindus in India, to whom the "the fleshpot is an abomination," and rare to absent in the Inuit, Masai, and other carnivorous populations. As Isaac Levin wrote in 1910, "this hypothesis hardly holds good in regard to the American Indians, as they consume a great deal of food rich in nitrogen (meat) frequently to excess.""


So, as early, if not earlier, than the early 1900's, folks were trying to figure out what was causing the increase in the number of cancers relating to food consumption. By the late 1920's, Dr. Hoffman, an American statistician who wrote the above mentioned book The Mortality from Cancer Throughout the World, he among others were already attributing some of this to PROCESSED FOODS...

"Overnutrition in general, in conjunction with modern processed foods...foods demanding refrigeration, artificial preservation and coloring, or processing otherwise to an astonishing degree are to blame. Far reaching changes in bodily functioning and metabolism are introduced which, extending over many years, are the causes or conditions predisposing to the development of malignant new growths, and in part at least explain the observed increase in the cancer death rate of practically all civilized and highly urbanized countries."

What a mouthful. And this was in the 20's???? To this day, the governement, and the powers that be, STILL think that food colorings are SAFE, and processed foods in general are SAFE. Who do they think we are?

These passages are from Gary Taubes' book Good Calories Bad Calories. Check it out.

Take a step back. Learn. Move forward. Repeat.