Health Issues Why Do Vegetarians and Vegans Get Cancer?

[Amy SF]

I thought maintaining a veg*an diet was supposed to lower the risk of cancer, but we've seen a number of people who identify as vegetarian or vegan who have developed and died from cancer, including such celebrities as:

Linda McCartney
Steve Jobs
Davy Jones of the Monkees
Sam Simon, co-creator of The Simpsons (he hasn't died, yet, but he's terminal; see thefadedone's thread on this guy)

Beyond the tragedy of seeing such people with cancer, and the knowledge that my own vegetarian diet may not matter in the long run if I still have a risk of developing cancer, it saddens me because this has been used as a weapon in the hands of the anti-veg camp as proof that a veg*an diet not only does NOT reduce the risk of cancer but in fact actually CAUSES cancer. What the hell would you say to somebody who insists on making that correlation?

 

[Blobbenstein]

What the hell would you say to somebody who insists on making that correlation?

I would want to see some evidence of a correlation.

 

[Second Summer]

There are several studies showing a reduced rate of cancer in veg*ns. One such study was the EPIC Oxford study:
http://www.epic-oxford.org/

 

[ledboots]

Whenever anyone makes a healthy choice, it is healthier, but there is no magic bullet, no guarantee. Someone could be exclusively breastfed, vegan from birth, exercise regularly, meditate daily, live and work in low-risk areas, sleep regularly, reduce stress, avoid alcohol and drugs and still get cancer. Or a stroke, diabetes, a heart attack, etc.

If they had lived a less healthy life, maybe they would have had a shorter one, or one less healthy.

When I was a lactation consultant and talked about, say, the lowered risk of ear infections in breastfed babies, someone would inevitably point out that her sister's kid was breastfed and had a million ear infections and her neighbor's kid drank artificial baby milk and never had one. Everything is about risk reduction, not elimination.

 

[SummerRain]

Is this a joke? (I've got that wrong before!) Assuming not...

Why do vegetarians and vegans get cancer?
- Cancer is probabilistic, you can increase/decrease your probability of getting cancer, but that still means someone with a high risk can not get cancer and somebody with a low risk can get cancer.
- There are lots of other lifestyle contributing factors to cancer, other than simply eating/not eating meat. The rest of your diet, smoking, drinking, working with chemicals, working with radiation, how polluted where you live is, etc etc etc.
- There are genetic components to cancer

Also, I googled about cancer and this page is pretty informative, and adds some more to my list: What Causes Cancer

 

[Amy SF]

Is this a joke? (I've got that wrong before!) Assuming not...

Why do vegetarians and vegans get cancer?
- Cancer is probabilistic, you can increase/decrease your probability of getting cancer, but that still means someone with a high risk can not get cancer and somebody with a low risk can get cancer.
- There are lots of other lifestyle contributing factors to cancer, other than simply eating/not eating meat. The rest of your diet, smoking, drinking, working with chemicals, working with radiation, how polluted where you live is, etc etc etc.
- There are genetic components to cancer

Also, I googled about cancer and this page is pretty informative, and adds some more to my list: What Causes Cancer

No, it's not a joke. I wanted to start a discussion on why vegetarians and vegans get cancer.

 

[RabbitLuvr]

Why does anyone get cancer? Why does one smoker get lung cancer and another one doesn't? Not smoking reduces your risk of developing lung cancer, but some non-smokers get lung cancer, too.

Reduced risk applies to an entire population as a whole, not individuals. If everyone on Earth was vegan, some individuals would still get cancer.

Not all cancers are diet-related. Cervical cancer can develop as a result of contracting HPV. I don't know that diet has an effect on that? What about genetic predisposition?

There are also a lot of unknowns. See studies showing soy reduces risk of developing breast cancer vs studies showing soy increases risk of developing breast cancer. Is mild alcohol consumption helpful or harmful?
There are just too many things we don't know.

Breast feeding reduces risk of breast cancer. Did I get it because I have no children and thus didn't breast feed? What about all the mothers out there who DID breast feed their children and got it??

 

[beancounter]

Because, unfortunately, there are more risk factors in contracting cancer than just diet.

 

[nigel1]

No, it's not a joke. I wanted to start a discussion on why vegetarians and vegans get cancer.

Aren't you a doctor or nurse or somesuch?

 

[Muggle]

 

[Amy SF]

Aren't you a doctor or nurse or somesuch?

I'm a medical transcriber. I have no formal medical training.

 

[Clueless Git]

Already been said; Lowering a risk is not eliminating a risk.

What the hell would you say to somebody who insists on making that correlation?

I'd ask them this; What is the correlation between only 1 in 10 of the population being vegetarian and vegetarians accounting for around 1 in 3 of the people who have lived the longest lives.

 

[RascalsMom]

A reduced chance doesn't mean impossible to get.

 

[SuicideBlonde]

Cancer does not discriminate. There are too many factors that are involved.

 

[thefadedone]

A vegan and vegetarian diet does NOT make you invincible. It is a healthier choice, but you won't automatically gain super powers from it.

 

[Mischief]

A vegan and vegetarian diet does NOT make you invincible. It is a healthier choice, but you won't automatically gain super powers from it.

****! I've wasted decades of my life by being misinformed about that.

 

[AeryFairy]

A vegan and vegetarian diet does NOT make you invincible. It is a healthier choice, but you won't automatically gain super powers from it.

No, you have to go to vegan academy for that.

 

[LuvOurMother]

http://www.llu.edu/public-health/health/vege-cancer.page?

 

[Mel]

Most of us would get cancer if we live long enough. Some people are predisposed to getting it much much earlier in life, as evidenced by my good friend's step daughter who is only 4 and had her first cancer at 2 (she's already been through and fought 2 different types of cancer). She will likely struggle with that her entire (I'm assuming short) life. Doctors are saying that she has a rare genetic marking that will mean she will get cancer after cancer.

I don't think diet will help her.

While we lower our risk of getting cancer, for those of us who are in the group of 'live old enough and you will get it', I believe we are merely delaying it.

 

[Poppy]

A vegan and vegetarian diet does NOT make you invincible. It is a healthier choice, but you won't automatically gain super powers from it.

<<<--- is so disappointed!