CANCER AND DIET.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 6 April 1927, Page 7

CANCER AND DIET.

A DIRECT RELATIONSHIP. Sir W. Arbutlinot Lane, Bart., C. 8., the famous physician, lias contributed idle following article to the British press:— 1 Can anything be more futile and misleading than the statement-, made under the authority of the Ministry of H a til. that there is no connection between cancer and diet? Fortunately the matter is one on which the intelligent layman is quite as able to form an opinion as any. medical man. It is simply a question of evidence. There are certain undeniable facte. (1) That the manner in which the digestive system functions is directly dependent on diet. If certain foods are eaten, the contents of the big bowel, or the cesspool of the system, are evacuated at regular intervals. If suitable food® are eaten the bowel evacuates a quantity of material after each meal, proportionate in bulk to the amount of food taken. (2) If foods deprived of those factors which stimulate the intestine to action are eaten, the contents of the tenge bowel stagnate, and the automatic expulsion of the faecal matter talves place only once in 24 hours', and not uncommonly at much longer intervals. The fact that chronic constipation is generally distressing to the average- man. and woman is shown by the aimost fabulous fortunes that have been made by purveyors of purgative drugs. T would like to point out that there is a Blue Book which contains comparative death rates among of various occupation's in Great Britain. The cancer mortalities gave the following figures:— Clergymen ... 45 Agricultural labourers 54 Inn and hotel servants 102 Butchers ••• ... ... 105 Seamen, merchant .service ... 110 (Seamen live largely on preserved food) The clergy probably live as plainly as the agricultural labourers, and both take much walking exercise and eat the plainest diet, with little meat. The commission, which made an exhaustive inquiry into the subject, reported to the Ministry of Health that their investigation* proved conclusively that fatal cancer occurs in populations abstaining from flesh food, and lends no real support to the contention' that among such populations the incidence of cancer is low.