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A recently published (Journal of Food and Nutritional Disorders) bit of perspective from one of my mentors here in Stamford. Enjoy!
"Everybody Can’t Eat Everything by Joseph S. Feuerstein, Director of Integrative Medicine, Center for Integrative Medicine and Wellness at Stamford Hospital, USA There is a sentiment among the general public that human nutrition is egalitarian, and anyone from any part of the world, can eat anything they fancy from the other end of the planet, even if this may be first time that they or any of their predecessors, have ever been exposed to that type of food. Due to global trade in the 21st century, a person can eat all manner of varied foods like gluten, soy and milk, all together in a single sitting. Though it would be comforting to think that everyone in the species is the same, when it comes to what foods our bodies can tolerate; the truth is that there are wide geographical and racial variations between people, as we are not equal when it comes to food. Celiac disease, an auto-immune enteropathy that occurs in individuals, carrying the alleles HLA- DQ2 and/or HLA DQ8, who are exposed to gluten in their food, is found predominantly in people of Caucasian genetic heritage, as these two alleles are regarded as primarily Caucasian genetic traits. Though, a case series at the Celiac Disease Center of Columbia University found that, 1% of African Americans had celiac disease and celiac has been found in North Africa, the Middle East and Northern India [1], Celiac is still much more common in countries populated by those of European origin. The metabolism of soy by the bacteria of the human gut, and the geographical variation in people’s ability to convert the soy isoflavone, daidzein to equol and o-desmethylangolesin (ODMA), again illustrates the racial variation, in what foods the digestive systems of people from different areas of the world can metabolize. Research done on Korean Americans and Caucasian American in the Seattle, Washington area found that compared to Western populations, Asian populations has higher equol-producer prevalence (51% vs 36%). They also found that the ODMA- producer phenotype was less common in Korean Americans (84%) than in Caucasian Americans (92%). The authors concluded that the metabolism of the soy isoflavone, daidzein, may differ between different racial groups [2]. Finally, the ability to digest the milk sugar, lactose, differs widely in the population. The enzyme lactase, needed to digest lactose in the gastro-intestinal tract is found in approximately 85% of people of Northern European descent but only 20% of blacks and Latinos and is found rarely in Asians [3]. It could be argued that, as people from different geographical areas become accustomed to eating foods, that are new to their cultural eating habits, their digestive systems will adapt themselves to allow optimal digestion of these new foods. However, an interesting point noted in the Seattle, Washington study on the digestion of soy noted that, although the Korean Americans ate approximately three times more soy foods than the Caucasian Americans did, there was no significant association between consumption of soy foods and the equol- producer phenotype. It appears that the ability to metabolize soy, was based more on genes than the amount of soy people were exposed to in their diets. Based on the facts detailed above, one has to conclude that though we are so much alike in so many ways, when it comes to eating, we all can’t eat everything, we would like to. References 1. Brar P, Lee AR, Lewis SK, Bhagat G, Green PHR (2006) Celiac disease in African-Americans. Dig Dis Sci 51: 1012-1015. 2. Song KB, Atkinson C, Frankenfeld CL, Jokela T, Wähälä K, et al. (2006) Prevalence of daidzein-metabolizing phenotypes differs between Caucasian and Korean American women and girls. J Nutr 136: 1347-1351. 3. Swagerty DL Jr, Walling AD, Klein RM (2002) Lactose intolerance. Am Fam Physician 65: 1845-1850. *Corresponding author: Joseph S. Feuerstein, Director of Integrative Medicine, Center for Integrative Medicine and Wellness at Stamford Hospital, 32 Strawberry Hill Ct Suite 41043, Stamford, CT 06902, USA, Tel: (203) 276-4777; E-mail: JFeuerstein@stamhealth.org Received: September 03, 2012 Accepted: September 04, 2012 Published: September 06, 2012"
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Hot off the presses of the American Institute for Cancer Research (and excerpted from ScienceNow), it looks like researchers are uncovering some of the mysteries behind environmental influences on breast cancer risk in women. Read on for further details.
'Evidence pointing to adolescence as a vulnerable period for life-long breast health stems from both animal and human observational studies. During puberty, the structure of the breast changes as a network of branching ducts develops. Cells are dividing at a quicker pace and any carcinogen that cells are exposed to puts them at greater risk of essentially making a mistake copying the DNA from parent to daughter cell. "Some of these changes occur and are latent for several decades, waiting for a second hit, for something else to go wrong that triggers breast cancer," says Lindsay Frazier, MD, a pediatric oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute who is currently conducting an AICR-supported study related to adolescents' diets and risk of breast cancer. "It’s possible [during this time] there are ways nutrition protects the cell from acquiring a genetic mistake, or likewise it could be more vulnerable to potential carcinogens in the diet." Diet and Drinking In studies on adolescent diet and later breast cancer, alcohol is one factor that has consistently linked to increased risk. Studies have produced conflicting findings for many other exposures, including vitamin D, milk, types of fat and vitamin E. The challenge in replicating study findings may have a lot to do with human fallibility. The majority of studies investigating adolescent lifestyle habits ask women to recall their weight, physical activity and diet from decades earlier, a challenge to remember correctly. Unknowingly, recall bias may also play a factor. In several studies, when women diagnosed with breast cancer recalled their diet, the findings differed from women who were cancer-free. It’s possible that the cancer survivors were falsely recalling factors they thought might explain their disease. In her research, Frazier is removing these possible measurement errors by using data from the Growing Up Today Study (GUTS), a group of approximately 9,000 girls who were ages 9-14 when the study began 13 years ago. (GUTS participants are the children of Nurses Health Study II participants.) The AICR-funded study is focusing on fiber and vitamin D; examining their link to types of benign breast disease (BBD) linked to increased risk of breast cancer. Soy at Early Ages Some of the earliest evidence suggesting a young girl’s diet may play a role in future breast cancer risk relates to soy. Researchers have long observed that Asian women, who eat soy as part of their standard diet, have a significantly lower breast cancer risk than Caucasian women. Yet when Asian women move to the West, their daughters’ risk becomes similar to that of Caucasian women. After numerous laboratory studies and her recent review of the literature, Leena A. Hilakivi-Clarke, PhD, says the evidence shows that soy protects against breast cancer, but only when women were exposed to soy at young ages. A Professor of Oncology at Georgetown University Medical Center, Hilakivi-Clarke’s animal studies have found that soy’s genistein leads to several long-lasting changes, including activating a tumor suppressor gene and decreasing the estrogen receptor’s response to estrogen. "There are so many different changes caused by soy and genistein; right now we don’t know which of these might be the critical ones. It’s likely multiple pathways." The Puzzle of Body Fat Protection Among adults, clear evidence shows that excess body fat increases the risk of post-menopausal breast cancer. Yet when it comes to body fatness of girls and adolescents, a growing body of evidence suggests the opposite. In one of the larger studies, almost 200,000 participants who recalled their body fatness at young ages were tracked for 16 years. The study found that body fatness at young ages overall decreased later breast cancer risk; the greatest decrease in risk was observed for adolescent body fat. As body fatness increased, breast cancer risk declined. And the link was unaffected by adult weight. Exactly how excess adolescent body fat may protect against breast cancer is not known. The next goal is to understand what is driving the association in order to focus on prevention, said Heather J. Baer, ScD, Instructor in Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health and lead author of the study. "This study is part of a bigger picture, looking at cancer risk over the life course…. Now we know there are a number of factors at different stages of life that could impact breast cancer risk many years later.' Source - AICR Feb 23 newsletter. Original source excerpted from ScienceNow. |
AuthorDr. Maltz earned a Medical Degree and Master in Public Health from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, TX. She completed a combined Internal and Preventive Medicine Residency at UTMB in June, 2011. She then completed a 2-year Integrative Medicine Fellowship at Stamford Hospital in Stamford, CT, during which she simultaneously underwent an intensive 1000-hour curriculum created by The University of Arizona Integrative Medicine Program founded by Dr. Andrew Weil. Archives
October 2020
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