To Meat Or Not To Meat? Diet and Cancer Risk
What we eat can affect our risk for specific cancers, but not all causal links are obvious
The food issue
Cancer is complicated. Not only are there many types of cancer, even within a single tumor different tumor cells can be more or less aggressive or resistant to therapy.
Let’s make it a little more complicated. Our risk for developing cancer is a complex dance of many interacting factors. As with many biological phenomena, cancer is the result of genetics ánd environment.
Time for a metaphor: cancer is like Russian roulette. Genetics loads the gun, lifestyle pulls the trigger. Some people are genetically blessed with regard to cancer risk. Their gun is empty. Unless they go skinny dipping in a nuclear waste pool, they’re unlikely to get cancer even if their lifestyle includes several behaviors that might increase cancer risk. Other people’s gun comes with a full clip of genetic predispositions. One false lifestyle move, a feather touch on the trigger, and — bam — cancer.
(The genetics/lifestyle balance can differ among cancer types as well. Some cancers are mostly genetic, others more lifestyle-induced.)
