Can a High-Fat Diet Beat Cancer?

An article appeared in "Time" magazine in 2007 (thanks JC).

This is supposed to be a small-scale pilot study preceeding a full scientific investigation. I am not holding my breath.

Some terminally ill cancer patients in womens' hospital (University of Wurzburg) selected from among the hopeless cases, did get better, that is those who did not opt out due to sugar cravings. Strict ketogenic diet with no carbohydrates, using specially selected vegetable oils such as hempseed and linseed (flaxseed) oils. I wonder why did these medics not just use some common animal fat. Makes me wonder what else they might have done wrong. Still it seemed to have worked! Drs. McDougall, Ornish - any comments?
.

High carb vs. high fat diet

Two recent papers appeared (posted by JC on webmd 1 and 2 ):

"Dietary carbohydrates, fiber, and breast cancer risk in Chinese women"

and

"Long-term consumption of a carbohydrate-restricted diet does not induce deleterious metabolic effects".

The first paper found that pre-menopausal women in the highest quintile of carbohydrate consumption had a twice as high risk of breast cancer. No surprize here (except for vegan fundamentalists). The association held for the total carbohydrates intake as well as for the glycemic load but not for glycemic index, which seems to be putting a small spanner in the works of a popular theory that low glycemic index food (i.e. vegetables and fruit) are supposedly more healthy than some higher glycemic index produce (rice, potatoes etc).

The second paper looked interesting on the first sight but was somewhat disappointing on the closer inspection due to a lack of depth. They checked 17 women and 14 men in their 50-ties, most of whom adhered to Dr.Kwasniewski's Optimal Diet for over 3 years. The paper concluded on the basis of patients' blood cholesterol, glucose and insulin profile, quote:

"These results indicate that long-term (greater than 1 year) compliance with a low-CHO high-fat 'optimal diet' does not induce deleterious metabolic effects and does not increase the risk for cardiovascular disease,..."

Duh...

I Wish Everybody Less Toxic Year or (at least) More Fun in 2009!