How Thin is the 'veganism cures cancer' Argument?
Can veganism save your life? I have been told a vegan diet
will cure diabetes (actually, this guy said it would cure the ‘genetic weakness’
leading to diabetes), make us live longer, cure any ailment and even prevent cancer. Wow, just doing that with a diet, I would be healthy and then I can
live my life freely…but wait, I have been a vegetarian for 13 years now, I think
‘well, I’m halfway there and I have developed diabetes’, so it’s probably not
going to help. This moron, sorry, acquaintance of my sister, posts
hilariously biased and improperly sourced articles to back up whatever aligns
his preconceived notions to support his lack of critical thinking and lack of basic
scientific education. This hits home, as we went to the same schools, only I, clearly
paid attention.
In a long string of posts this guy places this article
entitled: Scientist find blood from vegans is eight times more protective against cancer.
The article summarises a study saying:
In a series of experiments people were placed on different diets and
their blood was then dripped on cancer cells in a petri dish to see which diet
resulted in blood that was more effective at suppressing cancer growth.
This is about as telling as pinpointing which water molecule
finally sank the Titanic. If it does it in a petri-dish it is exactly the same in the body, right?
Studies…
The first study they link to is published in The Journal of Urology titled: Intensive lifestyle changes may affect the progression of prostate cancer. Using 93 volunteers they looked at the
effects of lifestyle on PSA. I have previously written about why PSA is not a
reliable source of information in my post on screening. They state that the growth
of cancer cells in the prostrate was inhibited by almost 8 times as much as the
control group. There is no mention of veganism in this lifestyle change. So
this is redundant.
Next; Breast cancer - Effects of a low-fat, high-fiber diet and exercise program on breast cancer risk factors in vivo and tumor cell growth and apoptosis in vitro published in Journal of Nutrition and Cancer. The
article states:
“Subsequent studies against breast cancer showed the power of eating
plants for just two weeks.[2]. ..Samples
of blood were taken from women with breast cancer, and then the women were
asked to spend 14 days on a plant-based diet and perform 30-60 minutes of light
exercise daily. After 14 days their blood was taken again and found to
significantly slow down the growth of cancer, as well as increase the blood's
ability to kill cancer cells.
So, this study they cite actually looked at effects of diet
and exercise on known breast cancer risk factors. They do not mention anywhere
in the study that these women have cancer. The women were placed on a low fat
and high fibre diet and exercised. The conclusion of the study is literally:
These results show that a very-low-fat, high-fiber diet combined with
daily exercise results in major reductions in risk factors for BCa while
subjects remained overweight/obese. These in vivo serum changes slowed the
growth and induced apoptosis in serum-stimulated BCa cell lines in vitro.
I have no idea what the person who wrote this article
actually read, but it was clearly not the study they have actually cited. Now, I
am not saying he’s made this up, maybe he just can’t read? This literally has
zero all to do with veganism. Zero. Like the last study.
They then say that maybe it was the exercise that did it, so
a separate study was set up – good line of thinking If the premise was even
true, credit where it is due when trying to cover your own back and trying to
give legitimacy to bullshit. So, they provide and third and final study
published in prostrate titled: A low-fat diet and/or strenuous exercise alters the IGF axis in vivo and reduces prostrate tumor cell growth in vitro.
The study, again, mentions low fat and healthier diets, not veganism and didn't really show much clinical significance.
The article concludes with:
Lifestyle changes can have a huge effect on our long term health and
reduce the risk of contracting cancer and increase the chances of surviving
cancer. A plant-based diet and regular exercise can really help improve our
long term quality of life. And having blood that's more inhospitable to cancer
growth is just one major health advantage of the vegan diet.
Now, the only way I think they can conclude this is if they
have used ‘high-fibre’ and ‘low-fat’ synonymously with ‘vegan’, and I believe
they have just done that. These studies show, in low sample sizes, that
exercise may have an influence on
cancer prevention. Not one study describes a mechanism as to how cancer is ‘inhospitable’
in the blood of vegans (because it isn’t). The premise is that vegans don’t get
cancer and that really does not fit any scientific consensus.
Hilariously the author of the post dumps a picture in the centre to highlight how good veganism is :
Does this mean anything to you? because it doesn't to me and there is literally no mention of it in the main body of text. I have genuinely no idea what it is. I can only assume that it is the '8 times cancer preventative property', but I can only guess at that. The words 'S.A.D' and 'Vegan' have been presumably added by the author, as there is a key next to it. No title, but a key, what more information is needed?
Pandemic Immunity
Their conclusion in the article got me thinking, if their
premise is true and vegans have blood that is ‘inhospitable to cancer growth’,
then surely a blood transfusion would take hold to prevent cancer in people who
are not vegan? Like when you’re watching a pandemic apocalypse film and they
need the blood of patient zero to give immunity to a whole bunch of people in
order to save their lives. I just had a quick search for any study in this area
and there is none…wonder why?
[DO NOT BLOODY TRY THIS]
Where Do We Go From Here?
Stop saying it will cure cancer, symptoms of chemo, diseases
and stope generally being morons. That’s pretty much where we go from here. If
veganism really did kill cancer cells for whatever reason, do you not think
more people will be vegans? Why do oncologists not recommend a vegan diet as
treatment to their patients? There isn’t even a fallacy here for me to spout
some Latin off; this is just purely made up.
Cancer is pretty horrific in itself; medical interventions
have been developed to help fight cancer. Years of study and scientific
revolution has occurred in that period in order to help which these
advancement. Not once has ‘I’m a vegan’ helped. The promise of a cure looks
somewhat tempting, but there is no science behind this. Cancer is saliently complex and cannot be reduced to a couple of risk factors. This kind
of message that people put out is dangerous and can put people at risk from
receiving actual medical intervention.
So, to summerise:
There is no evidence to say that vegan diets cure cancer.
Not one. If you want to be vegan, that's fine. If you want to be a pseudoscience....that's not.
