WHY IS DIET IMPORTANT?

What is there about a diet high in saturated fat vs. a diet rich in fruits and vegetables that could have such a dramatic effect? Of course, the more fat a person consumes, the less desire he or she probably will have to eat fruits and vegetables. But this is only the beginning of a very interesting story. What about the effect of cultural or inherited factors (that may have little to do with diet) upon the incidence of cancer? Researchers have shown that differences in exercise and childbearing patterns do enter in to the picture.(Frisch, 1987) But it is also true that studies of Asian and Slavic peoples who migrate and adopt Western eating habits (with 40% or more of their caloric intake high in saturated fats) show an increase in steroid-involved cancers that directly correlates with their dietary change (Haensel and Kurihara, 1968, and Staszewski and Haenzel, 1965).