Half Of Americans Don’t Know This Food Increases Colon Cancer Risk
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You’ve probably seen the headlines about colon cancer rates rising steeply in the US. with increasingly younger people getting it.
So, what’s driving it?
There are likely a set of intersecting factors, but here’s a major one that’s very modifiable:
Don’t be too quick to meat your end
A recent nationwide poll found that, amongst other things:
- Nearly half of Americans (45%) don’t know that eating processed meat increases colon cancer risk
- More than half of Americans (54%) don’t know that eating red meat increases colon cancer risk
As an encore, more than half of Americans (59%) don’t know that drinking alcohol “in moderation” increases colon cancer risk
We put the “scare quotes” around “in moderation”, on account of the World Health Organization’s declaration that the only safe amount of alcohol is zero: WHO: No level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health
As for the associated cancer risk specifically (i.e. aside from the many other ways alcohol can kill you), regular 10almonds readers may remember our article on this topic:
How Much Alcohol Does It Take To Increase Cancer Risk?
But, today we’re focussing on the meat issue, because we did say “food” in the title, after all!
In the words of the International Agency for Research on Cancer,
❝each 50 gram portion of processed meat eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18%❞
But that’s processed meat (well-established as a Group 1 carcinogen); what about red meat? The researchers concede that as well as being a group 2 carcinogen, red meat does have nutritional value, before concluding:
❝These findings further support current public health recommendations to limit intake of meat❞
If you want to skip straight to doing that, than check out: The Whys and Hows of Cutting Meats Out Of Your Diet
You may be wondering how those two things (processed meat and red meat) are defined:
- Red meat refers to all types of mammalian muscle meat, such as beef, veal, pork, lamb, mutton, horse, and goat.
- Processed meat refers to meat that has been transformed through salting, curing, fermentation, smoking, or other processes to enhance flavour or improve preservation.
As for the public awareness issues, you can see graphs of the data here!
As for what to do instead of eating the meat:
- Plant-based diets rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes are associated with a 22% lower risk of colorectal cancer
- Higher fiber intake is strongly protective, with one study showing up to a 72% lower risk of colon polyps in those consuming the most fiber. There’s a dose-response effect, with each additional 10g of dietary fiber decreasing cancer risk by 10% from the previous dose.
And for more on this in general, see: Eat To Beat Cancer
Want to learn more?
To make your cooking especially anticancer, you might like this excellent book we reviewed a while back;
Beat Cancer Kitchen: Deliciously Simple Plant-Based Anticancer Recipes – by Chris Wark & Micah Wark
Enjoy!
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Lychees vs Strawberries – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing lychees to strawberries, we picked the strawberries.
Why?
Strawberries enjoy modest to strong wins in each category:
In terms of macros, lychees have more carbs, while strawberries have more fiber, winning.
In the category of vitamins, lychees have more of vitamins B2, B3, B6, and C, while strawberries have more of vitamins A, B1, B7, B9, E, and K, winning this round too.
Looking at minerals, lychees have more copper, phosphorus, potassium, and selenium, while strawberries have more calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, and zinc, once gain winning.
In other considerations, strawberries have more polyphenols, which is one more win.
Adding up the sections makes for a clear overall in for strawberries, but do enjoy either or both, as diversity is best!
Want to learn more?
You might like:
Are You Getting The Right Kinds Of Flavonoids?
Enjoy!
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“The Longevity Vitamin” (That’s Not A Vitamin)
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The Magic of Mushrooms
“The Longevity Vitamin that’s not a vitamin” is a great tagline for what’s actually an antioxidant amino acid nutraceutical, but in this case, we’re not the ones spearheading its PR, but rather, the Journal of Nutritional Science:
Is ergothioneine a “longevity vitamin” limited in the American diet?
It can be found in all foods, to some extent, but usually in much tinier amounts than would be useful. The reason for this is that it’s synthesized by a variety of microbes (mostly fungi and actinobacteria), and enters the food chain via vegetables that are grown in soil that contain such (which is basically all soil, unless you were to go out of your way to sterilize it, or something really unusually happened).
About those fungi? That includes common popular edible fungi, where it is found quite generously. An 85g (3oz) portion of (most) mushrooms contains about 5mg of ergothioneine, the consumption of which is associated with a 16% reduced all-cause mortality:
However… Most Americans don’t eat that many mushrooms, and those polled averaged 1.1mg/day ergothioneine (in contrast with, for example, Italians’ 4.6mg/day average).
Antioxidant properties
While its antioxidant properties aren’t the most exciting quality, they are worth a mention, on account of their potency:
The biology of ergothioneine, an antioxidant nutraceutical
This is also part of its potential bid to get classified as a vitamin, because…
❝Decreased blood and/or plasma levels of ergothioneine have been observed in some diseases, suggesting that a deficiency could be relevant to the disease onset or progression❞
Source: Ergothioneine: a diet-derived antioxidant with therapeutic potential
Healthy aging
Building on from the above, ergothioneine has been specifically identified as being associated with healthy aging and the prevention of cardiometabolic diseases:
❝An increasing body of evidence suggests ergothioneine may be an important dietary nutrient for the prevention of a variety of inflammatory and cardiometabolic diseases and ergothioneine has alternately been suggested as a vitamin, “longevity vitamin”, and nutraceutical❞
~ Dr. Bernadette Moore et al., citing more references every few words there
Source: Ergothioneine: an underrecognised dietary micronutrient required for healthy ageing?
Good for the heart = good for the brain
As a general rule of thumb, “what’s good for the heart is good for the brain” is almost always true, and it appears to be so in this case, too:
❝Ergothioneine crosses the blood–brain barrier and has been reported to have beneficial effects in the brain. In this study, we discuss the cytoprotective and neuroprotective properties of ergotheioneine, which may be harnessed for combating neurodegeneration and decline during aging.❞
Source: Ergothioneine: A Stress Vitamin with Antiaging, Vascular, and Neuroprotective Roles?
Want to get some?
You can just eat a portion of mushrooms per day! But if you don’t fancy that, it is available as a supplement in convenient 1/day capsule form too.
We don’t sell it, but for your convenience, here is an example product on Amazon
Enjoy!
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How Vitamin D May Help Protect Against Diabetes
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…and other items from this week’s health science news:
D vs D
Vitamin D may help protect you from diabetes… Or it may not. The science is clear on this!
In other words: the data (with a large amount of data analysis and a RCT with 2,098 people with prediabetes) is clear about the effect in general, and what that science says, is that whether or not it helps you as an individual, will depend on your genes.
Specifically:
- Participants with the AA variation of the vitamin D receptor gene showed no meaningful response when taking 4,000 IU of vitamin D daily compared with a placebo.
- Participants with AC or CC in the the vitamin D receptor gene had a 19% lower risk of developing diabetes when taking 4,000 IU of vitamin D daily compared with a placebo.
Why the genetic variation matters: vitamin D must bind to the vitamin D receptor to work in your body, and differences in this receptor—particularly in insulin-producing cells in your pancreas—will affect how well vitamin D helps regulate blood sugar.
So, this one’s a case for personalized prevention, where a simple genetic test could identify who is likely to benefit from higher vitamin D intake.
Read in full: Vitamin D may help prevent diabetes
Related: The Real Benefit Of Genetic Testing
Relighting the brain’s fire for happiness
Researchers (Dr. Alice Meuret et al.) have found that a therapy that directly targets lost pleasure (anhedonia*) improves depression and anxiety more than standard treatments that mainly reduce negative emotions.
*It’s not just about pleasure in the sense most might speak of such, though; anhedonia is the reduced or absent ability to feel positive emotions in general. It affects nearly all people with depression, and is strongly linked to worse outcomes, relapse, and suicidal risk.
The problem with standard therapies: most treatments focus on reducing sadness, fear, or distress, but largely ignore rebuilding positive emotions—even though patients often see that as their main goal.
Positive Affect Treatment (PAT), in contrast, is a 15-session psychotherapy designed to restore joy, motivation, meaning, and reward sensitivity. Specifically, it targets the brain’s reward system by encouraging engagement in meaningful activities, shifting attention towards positive experiences, and practising gratitude, savoring, and compassion-based exercises.
As for how well it works: the RCT of 98 adults with severe anhedonia, depression, and anxiety compared PAT to a conventional therapy focused on negative emotions. The results? PAT produced greater overall clinical improvement, including reductions in both depression and anxiety, even though it never directly targeted negative emotions.
Read in full: Targeting lost pleasure lifts depression and anxiety more than standard therapy, new study finds
Related: Behavioral Activation Against Depression & Anxiety
Allergy season feeling different this year?
Due to climate change, pollen seasons are starting earlier, lasting longer, and even overlapping. because of warmer temperatures and higher CO₂, which keeps your immune system in overdrive for longer and leads to more intense symptoms.
Air pollution (which is getting steadily worse in the US and likely many other places too) can also alter pollen particles, making them more irritating to your airways and increasing inflammation.
Children’s symptoms are easy to miss: kids may show allergies through mouth breathing, fatigue, irritability, sleep issues, ear infections, or dark circles under your eyes rather than clearly describing symptoms.
A very common mistake (regardless of age), is starting treatment too late, and/or using medication only when symptoms become onerous, but by this time, your immune system has already been overworked, and taking anti-allergy meds now won’t mean the already-in-progress war in your body suddenly stops instantly.
So instead, you might consider starting allergy medication before symptoms peak, and then taking it consistently for a few weeks (even if the symptoms stop, because that is what the meds are for!), to prevent your immune response from ramping up.
Read in full: Are you managing your allergies the wrong way?
Related: Antihistamines’ Generation Gap
Take care!
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No Bad Parts – by Dr. Richard Schwartz
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We’ve previously reviewed Dr. Schwartz’s “You Are The One You’ve Been Waiting For” and whereas that book doesn’t require having read this one, this one would be an excellent place to start, as it focuses on perhaps the most important core issues of IFS therapy.
We all have different aspects that have developed within us for different reasons, and can generally “become as though a different person when…” and some condition that is met. Those are our “parts”, per IFS.
This book makes the case that even the worst of our parts arose for reasons, that they often looked after us when no other part could or would, and at the very least, they tried. Rather than arguing for “so, everything’s just great”, though, Dr. Schwartz talks the reader through making peace with those parts, and then, where appropriate, giving them the retirement they deserve—of if that’s not entirely practical, arranging for them to at least take a seat and wait until called on, rather than causing problems in areas of life to which they are not well-suited.
Throughout, there is a good balance of compassion and no-bullshit, both of which are really necessary in order to make this work.
Bottom line: if there are parts of you you’re not necessarily proud of, this book can help you to put them peacefully to rest.
Click here to check out No Bad Parts, and take care of yours!
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The Joy of Saying No – by Natalie Lue
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Superficially, this seems an odd topic for an entire book. “Just say no”, after all, surely! But it’s not so simple as that, is it?
Lue looks into what underpins people-pleasing, first. Then, she breaks it down into five distinct styles of people-pleasing that each come from slightly different motivations and ways of perceiving how we interact with those around us.
Lest this seem overly complicated, those five styles are what she calls: gooding, efforting, avoiding, saving, suffering.
She then looks out how to have a healthier relationship with our yes/no decisions; first by observing, then by creating healthy boundaries. “Healthy” is key here; this isn’t about being a jerk to everyone! Quite the contrary, it involves being honest about what we can and cannot reasonably take on.
The last section is about improving and troubleshooting this process, and constitutes a lot of the greatest value of the book, since this is where people tend to err the most.
Bottom line: this book is informative, clear, and helpful. And far from disappointing everyone with “no”, we can learn to really de-stress our relationships with others—and ourselves.
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Dangers Of Root Canals And Crowns, & What To Do Instead
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Dr. Michelle Jorgensen, a dentist, tells us that it’s a lot rarer than people think to actually need a crown or a root canal; there are ways of avoiding such:
The tooth, the whole tooth, and nothing but the tooth?
First, some of the problems with the treatments that are most popular, especially in the US:
Problems with root canals:
- Involves cleaning and filling the tooth’s main canal but leaves microtubules that can harbor dead tissue and attract bacteria.
- This can lead to infections, often undetected for a long time due to the nerve removal, potentially harming overall health and weakening the tooth.
- Root canals often result in brittle teeth that can break, necessitating crowns.
And then…
Problems with crowns:
- A crown requires significant removal of tooth structure (up to 1.5 mm of enamel), making the tooth more vulnerable and sensitive.
- Crowns can also lead to new cavities underneath due to weak bonding to dentin.
- The cycle often leads from a healthy tooth to fillings, crowns, root canals, and eventual extraction (and then, perhaps, an implant in its place). That’s great for the dentist, but not so great for you.
Biomimetic dentistry the exciting name currently being used for what has been more prosaically called “conservative restorative dentistry”, which in turn has also been known by other names in recent decades, and its goal is to strengthen and preserve natural teeth as much as possible.
Methods it uses:
- Treats affected but still living teeth with non-invasive procedures.
- Uses ozone treatment to kill bacteria in deep cavities, avoiding direct nerve exposure.
- Applies conservative partial restorations like onlays instead of full crowns.
Benefits of this approach:
- Preserves enamel, minimizes trauma, and reduces the risk of tooth death.
- Maintains long-term tooth structure and health.
- 95% success rate in saving affected teeth without resorting to root canals.
In short, Dr. Jorgensen says that 60–80% of traditional crowns and root canals can be avoided. Which is surely a good thing.
For more on all of this, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like:
Tooth Remineralization: How To Heal Your Teeth Naturally
Take care!
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