Health Issues Why Do Vegetarians and Vegans Get Cancer?

[Poppy]

There's an old joke whose punchline is something like "Poor vegetarians, they die for no reason!"

Certainly a healthy diet is wise, but no guarantee that you won't get cancer in this crazy world of pollution, chemicals and stress.

I don't think I could be veg*n for the health aspects alone. I would probably be swayed off course with all the conflicting data about what to eat, when to eat, what to never eat, and what to eat before 6pm.

 

[Wolfie]

Not all vegetarian or vegan diets are healthy. I know mine isn't half the time. Plus like others have said, factors other than diet contribute to risk.

 

[Ann Chovie]

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.

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Sadly, I have to agree ledboots there are no magic bullets..

We had a patient who was a lifelong Veggie, exercised daily and had never smoked. She was diagnosed with lung primary and colon secondary cancer. She responded badly to treatment despite switching to a Vegan diet and sadly died.

Being Veggie/Vegan and a non-smoker may lower your risk of contracting colorectal cancer and lung cancer but it certainly does not guarantee you immunity to it as in this ladys case.

The only point I would make is that in my present role I have seen approximately five hundred clients and within that number I can count on one hand the number of self-confessed Veggies I have met.

This is not evidence of a correlation between diet and cancer of course as accurate research would need to be carried out to assess the diet and lifestyle of each patient to reach any conclusion.

It may JUST be that patients do not mention that they are Vegetarian BUT the areas that I go into with them would naturally lead to such a disclosure (as would the fact that I normally manage to sneak into discussion somewhere that I am Vegan !! )

Unfortunately the arena I work in restricts my ability to discuss diet in any detail and carry out any informal research of my own, any attempt to do so would be frowned on.

I am aware though that the dietican based in the unit commonly recommends removing/decreasing dairy from patients diet. She also issues patients with a cookbook which contains pre-dominantly meat free recipes.

Again..this could be attributed to issues around Chemotherapy. Issues with swallowing and digesting during treatment mean that patients will often be unable to eat food that needs a great deal of chewing, and Chemotherapy frequently conflicts badly with dairy consumption.

So..nothing conclusive here either and frustratingly I cannot do any obvious digging without putting my job at risk

But..just on face value alone..a ratio of five to five hundred is a bit of a thinker isnt it?

 

[FortyTwo]

Until we find an actual, legitimate cure for the thing itself, or rather a horde of legitimate cures for the multitude of illnesses grouped under the term "cancer," cancer is still going to be a thing that people get all the time and there's nothing anyone can really do about it except take the preventative measures that we already know and understand.

 

[Kasandra]

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

I have to agree with this

 

[Amy SF]

But what do we say to omnis who insist that a veg*an diet invariably results in cancer, other than "Correlation does not imply causation"? I mean, we know they're wrong, but they pull weird anecdotes out of their *** to back up their wrong conclusion.

At a job I had back in the late 1990's, a new employee, upon learning that I was a vegetarian, immediately launched into a list of all the people she knew who became vegetarians and subsequently developed cancer. I was so dumbstruck by this that I didn't know what to say. I just sat there with my mouth open.

 

[Envy]

Because there are probably other things that cause cancer anyway.

Like living and breathing.

 

[Blobbenstein]

But what do we say to omnis who insist that a veg*an diet invariably results in cancer, other than "Correlation does not imply causation"? I mean, we know they're wrong, but they pull weird anecdotes out of their *** to back up their wrong conclusion.

At a job I had back in the late 1990's, a new employee, upon learning that I was a vegetarian, immediately launched into a list of all the people she knew who became vegetarians and subsequently developed cancer. I was so dumbstruck by this that I didn't know what to say. I just sat there with my mouth open.

yes, but is the a correlation?

And if people want to pull a weird anecdote out of their ***, that's up to them. It was probably causing them some pain up there anyway, so you've done them a favour.

 

[RabbitLuvr]

But what do we say to omnis who insist that a veg*an diet invariably results in cancer, other than "Correlation does not imply causation"? I mean, we know they're wrong, but they pull weird anecdotes out of their *** to back up their wrong conclusion.

At a job I had back in the late 1990's, a new employee, upon learning that I was a vegetarian, immediately launched into a list of all the people she knew who became vegetarians and subsequently developed cancer. I was so dumbstruck by this that I didn't know what to say. I just sat there with my mouth open.

Tell them that cancer is caused by a variety of things, not just diet.

Or just ignore them.

 

[Moll Flanders]

Not all vegetarian or vegan diets are healthy. I know mine isn't half the time.

Same here.

But what do we say to omnis who insist that a veg*an diet invariably results in cancer,

I haven't had any omni say that to me, I have had vague comments about why humans need to eat meat and dairy but it's usually not backed up by anything scientific.

 

[FortyTwo]

Tell them that cancer is caused by a variety of things, not just diet.

Or just ignore them.

Or, you know, kick them in the face, strip to your underwear, and run away singing Yankee Doodle.

 

[Blobbenstein]

what if one goes commando?

 

[shyvas]

Yes, as basically they are human beings.

 

[das_nut]

Next week: Why do some people who wear seatbelts still die in a car accident?

 

[thefadedone]

But what do we say to omnis who insist that a veg*an diet invariably results in cancer, other than "Correlation does not imply causation"? I mean, we know they're wrong, but they pull weird anecdotes out of their *** to back up their wrong conclusion.

At a job I had back in the late 1990's, a new employee, upon learning that I was a vegetarian, immediately launched into a list of all the people she knew who became vegetarians and subsequently developed cancer. I was so dumbstruck by this that I didn't know what to say. I just sat there with my mouth open.

There is no doubt in my mind that the woman who said that to you also knew omnis who had cancer.

 

[FortyTwo]

what if one goes commando?

Then they are not a true Patriot and shall be smote by Our God in Heaven.

 

[Amy SF]

There is no doubt in my mind that the woman who said that to you also knew omnis who had cancer.

It's quite possible. But she didn't mention those people. As far as she was concerned, you become a vegetarian, you get cancer, and the omnis were just unlucky.

 

[RabbitLuvr]

It's quite possible. But she didn't mention those people. As far as she was concerned, you become a vegetarian, you get cancer, and the omnis were just unlucky.

She doesn't sound like a person I'd waste another 30 seconds on. I'd worry less about what this kind of person thinks, they're probably not going to listen to facts regardless of what you tell them.

 

[Amy SF]

She doesn't sound like a person I'd waste another 30 seconds on. I'd worry less about what this kind of person thinks, they're probably not going to listen to facts regardless of what you tell them.

You're right. It just bugged me because she seems to be representative of a lot of omnis who think that way.

 

[RabbitLuvr]

You're right. It just bugged me because she seems to be representative of a lot of omnis who think that way.

Maybe I'm lucky that I haven't met any omnis like that, or if I have I didn't notice.