Health Viewpoints
Have any readers heard of the Professor Clement Ip? Probably not, even though he is the author (or co-author) of almost sixty papers spanning the years 1985 to 2011—papers that point to life-saving information for cancer patients—and dietary strategies that can help to prevent cancer. Clement Ip, was Professor Emeritus in Oncology at the Department of Cancer Prevention and Control at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, New York.
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, a number of researchers were looking at the effects of different types of fats on tumor development and cancer progression in rats. The method involved introducing cancer-causing chemicals or human breast cancer cells into the mammary glands of rats and then feeding them a diet in which all factors were the same (calories, macronutrient ratios, etc.)—except for the type of fat. Similar studies looked at prostate cancer progression.
Cancer and Omega-6 Fatty Acids
Mr. Ip’s earliest paper, published in Cancer Research in 1985, examined the effects of various combinations of corn oil and coconut oil in the diets of rats fed a cancer-causing chemical. Coconut oil is rich in saturated fat while corn oil contains high levels of linoleate—linoleic acid—an omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid and the major type of fat molecule in industrial seed oils. The diets contained different levels of linoleate: 0.5, 1.1, 1.7, 2.2, 3.5, 4.4, 8.5, and 11.5 percent by weight, with total fat at 20 percent by weight.
Mr. Ip and his co-authors found that “Mammary tumorigenesis was very sensitive to linoleate intake and increased proportionately in the range of 0.5 to 4.4% of dietary linoleate.” The most severe growth and proliferation of tumors occurred when intake of omega-6 was around 4 percent of the diet by weight (about 2.5 ounces or 5 tablespoons in a typical American diet of 4 pounds of food per day), but even at .5 percent (.3 ounces or about 2 teaspoons), dietary linoleate provoked the growth of tumors. (Linoleate content above 4.4 percent by weight of the diet produced no proportionate increase.)
In 1997, researcher David Rose published a review in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, summarizing the findings of these types of studies:
“High-fat, linoleic acid-rich diets promote chemically induced rat mammary carcinogenesis, virally induced mouse mammary tumor development, and the growth and metastasis of estrogen-independent human breast cancer cells in athymic nude mice. In contrast, saturated fatty acids have no discernible effects on mammary carcinogenesis or progression.”
One study Mr. Rose cited (published 1979 in the journal Lipids) specifically showed that saturated fats caused no significant increase in tumor formation compared with that seen in rats fed a diet containing a mere 0.5 percent of corn oil. Mr. Rose summarized his review of over one hundred studies as follows:
“… when a high-fat (20% by wt) diet was provided in the form of corn oil or sunflower rich in [linoleate], there was a pronounced enhancement of mammary tumor development in rats exposed to DMBA [a carcinogen]. In contrast, equivalent total fat intake in the form of saturated fatty acid-containing coconut oil, butter or tallow produced no significant increase in tumor formation compared with that seen in rats fed an 0.5%-corn oil diet. These observations have been confirmed and extended by many investigators.”
Let that sink in. Science shows that omega-6 fatty acids—the kind the diet-dictocrats are encouraging us to eat—the kind that has flooded the food supply since the Second World War, encourage the growth of cancer, while butter, coconut oil, and tallow—the kind of fats that government officials warn against—does not support the growth of cancer. In other words, these saturated fats are protective.
Conjugated Linoleic Acid–Protection Against Cancer
In response to the Rose study, Mr. Ip published a follow-up review on the effects of trans fatty acids (the kind of fats in margarine), oleic acid (the kind of fat in olive oil and in various proportions in lard, tallow, and butter), omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (the kind found mostly in fish and fish liver oils, and also in small amounts in eggs, organ meats and animal fats), and a type of fat molecule called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA).
He found little evidence that oleic acid or omega-3 fatty acids provide protection against cancer and, surprisingly, that industrially created trans fats did not promote cancer. But what he did find was that CLA, even in very small amounts (less than 1 percent of the diet) provided significant protection against cancer whatever the mix of other fatty acids in the diet.
And where do we get CLA? We get this beneficial and natural trans fat from the fats of grass-fed animals—beef, lamb/mutton, egg yolks, and butterfat—and there is much more of it in the fats of grass-fed animals compared to grain-fed.
For the next few years, Mr. Ip published several papers on the protective effects of CLA, even suggesting adding CLA to butter—of course, the best way to get CLA into butterfat (and meat and eggs) is to let the animals eat grass!
Dietary Selenium Reported to Protect Against Prostate and Breast Cancers
In 2009, our friend Clement was named principal investigator of a $5.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the role of finasteride and selenium in preventing prostate cancer. Finasteride (brand name Propecia) is a drug used to treat male pattern baldness and has since been approved to treat men with prostate cancer. In several papers, Mr. Ip reported that dietary selenium on its own provided protection against cancers of both the prostate and the breast.
Brazil nuts are famously high in selenium—one ounce, or 6-8 Brazil nuts per day provides the daily requirement for selenium—but it’s found in many other foods such as pork, fish, eggs, and dairy foods, including butter, especially if it comes from cows grazing on selenium-rich soil.
Withholding Vital Information—Ignorance or Criminal Negligence?
Today we’re seeing a profusion of advertising for cancer centers where balded children are forced into chemotherapy while their parents anguish on the sidelines. What kind of dietary advice do these families receive in these centers? Are they told about the research indicating that grass-fed butter will help prevent their kids’ cancers from growing and spreading, and even recurring? Are they encouraged to eat foods rich in selenium?
Most importantly, are these families warned about the carcinogenic properties of industrial seed oils, even as a very small percentage of the diet? Are they cautioned against fried fast food, chips and dips, bottled salad dressings, pastries, and cookies? Do they receive instructions on consuming real foods, like grass-fed eggs and meat, seafood, vegetables, and homemade salad dressings made with real olive oil? Butter from grass-fed cows is widely available in supermarkets today. Are cancer patients advised to use it liberally?
No, they are not. The fact that what science has discovered about cancer protection is not shared with these families—indeed not with any cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy—constitutes a crime of immense proportions. Please don’t tell me that our medical system is based on science. Yes, we have made tremendous strides in the technologies of surgery, but when it comes to the knowledge we need to recover and stay healthy, that remains buried in the obscure papers of Mr. Ip and his colleagues.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Epoch Health welcomes professional discussion and friendly debate. To submit an opinion piece, please follow these guidelines and submit through our form here.