What is the connection between the consumption of eggs and different cholesterol-rich meals and cancers of the colon, breast, endometrium, pancreas, and throat?
In 1969, a correlation evaluation was performed by a Dr. Gregor—no relation, and he spelled it incorrect—and his colleagues. They discovered a relatively tight correlation between animal protein consumption and intestinal most cancers mortality. You can see a graph of those outcomes at 0:15 in my video Friday Favorites: Dietary Cholesterol and Cancer. In the Nineteen Seventies, this relationship was extended to incorporate breast most cancers, too, and animal fats was implicated as properly. Animal protein and dietary ldl cholesterol form of travel collectively in the identical meals. So, it isn’t stunning that “there is significant correlation between high consumption of cholesterol-containing food items and the world-wide distribution of colon cancer.” A “large and highly significant” correlation exists, even after controlling for different dietary elements, equivalent to animal fats and fiber, “supporting the possibility of a causal relationship between cholesterol intake and colon cancer.”
So, is dietary ldl cholesterol co-carcinogenic for human colon most cancers? Researchers determined to attempt to discover out by feeding some to rats. In one examine, researchers injected rats with a carcinogen, and the cholesterol-eating rats received tumors in half the time they usually all died, whereas a lot of the rats in the cholesterol-free group survived. But “the relevance of animal data to the human situation is debatable.” How would the ldl cholesterol and most cancers hyperlink even work?
As people, we don’t have to consume any ldl cholesterol, since our physique makes all that it wants. When we do devour further ldl cholesterol, there’s a restrict to the quantity our physique can soak up. So, “where does the excess go?” Down to our colon. In this fashion, the cells lining our colon, the place colon most cancers arises, “are therefore constantly exposed to fecal cholesterol.” Should a cancerous or precancerous polyp come up, may all of that further ldl cholesterol assist it develop quicker? Indeed, the quantity of ldl cholesterol we eat “could thus be a factor determining the rate of development, growth, or spread of such a tumor.” Back in the Nineteen Seventies, this was all simply hypothesis, however the researchers realized that if it had been true, that will be excellent news, since a low-cholesterol eating regimen, slicing down on meat, dairy, eggs, and junk—the one meals that basically have ldl cholesterol—could be a “feasible, inexpensive, and without risk” approach to assist forestall and deal with colon most cancers. So, what’s the 40-year replace?
Country-by-country correlation can by no means do extra than simply encourage research like this: “the largest nationwide population-based case-control study [to date] to assess the association between cholesterol intake and several types of cancer.” The researchers discovered that “dietary cholesterol intake was positively associated with risk of cancers of the stomach, colon, rectum, pancreas, lung, breast (mainly postmenopausal), kidney, bladder and NHL,” non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, or bone marrow. The flipside? “A diet low in cholesterol may play a role in the prevention of several cancers.” This means slicing down on meat, dairy, and eggs, the very meals which will enhance danger of most cancers.
“Thus, the findings of this study should essentially be viewed as an indication that a diet rich in meat, dairy products, eggs (and hence animal fat) is an unfavorable indicator of the risk of several common cancers…” Two cancers the examine didn’t examine, although, had been endometrial most cancers and throat most cancers. When all the research on ldl cholesterol consumption and the chance of endometrial most cancers (most cancers of the liner of the uterus) had been put collectively, researchers found a dose-response, that means extra ldl cholesterol consumption was related with extra most cancers: 6 % for each further 100 mg of ldl cholesterol every day. So, one thing like a day by day omelet may enhance endometrial most cancers danger by about 20 %. This could also be as a result of the additional ldl cholesterol is transformed into estrogen, or it could simply be as a result of the elevated oxidative stress is mirrored in increased ranges of oxidized ldl cholesterol. I discuss this in my video Oxidized Cholesterol as a Cause of Alzheimer’s Disease.
There additionally appears to be a dose-response relationship with pancreatic most cancers, “one of the most dismal malignancies.” A compilation of research discovered the chance of pancreatic most cancers elevated by 8 % for each 100 mg of ldl cholesterol, so that will be about a 30 % increased danger for a day by day omelet.
And throat most cancers? Increased danger was observed by researchers for elevated ldl cholesterol consumption—about 85 % increased odds, which is constant with different research. Yes, perhaps it’s the oxidation, or perhaps it’s the irritation. We can’t, nevertheless, ensure the ldl cholesterol itself is responsible. “Elevated cholesterol intake could be an indicator that a diet rich in meat, eggs, and dairy products may have unfavorable effects.”
The optimum consumption of ldl cholesterol? Zero. See Trans Fat, Saturated Fat, and Cholesterol: Tolerable Upper Intake of Zero.
