{"id":53327,"date":"2021-03-17T08:43:37","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T12:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=53327"},"modified":"2021-03-17T10:33:52","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T14:33:52","slug":"dr-fung-why-obesity-and-diabetes-increase-cancer-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=53327","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Fung: Why Obesity and Diabetes Increase Cancer Risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Jason Fung is widely known as an advocate for the technique of intermittent fasting in patients hoping to reverse or prevent diabetes and obesity. He has written several books<\/a> on dieting and metabolic health, including The Diabetes Code<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the online Metabolix 2021 conference<\/a>, Dr. Fung outlined the surprisingly strong connections between diet and cancer. It\u2019s a relationship that\u2019s been long known, but until recently was very poorly understood, and therefore not much talked about.<\/p>\n

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Cancer and Environmental Factors<\/h3>\n

\u201cFor many years we thought of cancer predominantly through the genetic paradigm. We thought about mutations in genes that lead to cancer\u2026 with less emphasis on the environment.\u201d But the truth is that “genetics contribute the minority of causation towards cancer. Almost all of cancer is a result of the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

That environmental factors can contribute to cancer shouldn\u2019t be surprising, of course. The association between tobacco and lung cancer is enough to make this principle abundantly clear. Experts have also known, for decades, that diet and lifestyle factors contribute to other types of cancer. By studying genetically homogeneous populations that have undergone major lifestyle shifts\u2014such as by comparing migrants to family members that stayed home, or the development of cancer in twins\u2014researchers can tease out which cancers are caused mostly by genetic factors, and which mostly by environmental.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not all cancers, only certain cancers\u201d that are highly determined by environmental factors. Experts have determined<\/a> that the factors causing stomach cancer, to take just one example, are something like 28% heritable, and 72% environmental. And many cancers seem especially related to diet, notably breast cancer, colorectal cancer, and certain cancers of the vital organs, such as the liver, pancreas and stomach.<\/p>\n

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A Range of Theories<\/h3>\n

Unfortunately, it took researchers decades to get close to an understanding of how diet actually increases cancer risks. Dr. Fung walked his audience through a short history of popular hypotheses that more or less had to be cast aside after further scrutiny:<\/p>\n