Fat and "low in fiber" Food boost the —estrogen and testosterone— hormones that promote cancer.

Fat and "low in fiber" Food boost the —estrogen and testosterone— hormones that promote cancer.

Many teams of researchers have studied the health of various populations
around the world, hoping to tease out the causes of cancer
and ways to prevent it. In one study after another, they have found
that people following plant-based diets tend to have strikingly low cancer
rates. In rural Asia and Africa, for example, traditional diets are based on
rice or other grains, starchy vegetables, fruits, and beans, and people eating
these diets generally avoid the disease. If cancer does strike, they also
seem to have better survival rates.

When these populations trade their traditional diets for a menu based
on Western foods—either because they have migrated or because fast-food
restaurants and other Western food purveyors have come to them—their
cancer rates promptly change. In Japan, dramatic diet changes began after
World War II. Traditional rice dishes were gradually replaced with hamburgers.

Dairy products, which had been almost unknown in Japan,
became popular. Carbohydrate intake fell, and fat consumption soared.
Soon, cancer rates began to rise, as did the toll of obesity, heart problems,
and other diseases.

Although many factors may be at work here, let us focus first on one
key biological fact: High-fat, low-fiber foods boost the hormones that promote
cancer. Specifically, diets rich in meat, dairy products, fried foods,
and even vegetable oils cause a woman’s body to make more estrogen. The
term “estrogen” actually refers to a group of hormones, including estradiol,
estrone, and others. For simplicity, they will be referred to here as
“estrogen.” In turn, that extra estrogen increases cancer risk in the breast
and other organs that are sensitive to female sex hormones.

To see why this matters, think for a moment about estrogen’s role in
the body. In simple terms, estrogen makes things grow. As an adolescent girl
develops a mature figure, she experiences estrogen’s ability to stimulate the
growth of breast tissue. The hormone also thickens the lining of the uterus
every month as a woman’s body prepares for the possibility of pregnancy.