Molecule Found in Meat, Milk and Tumors - Study

[twilight]

This just strengthens my belief in vegetarianism and not eating red meat or drinking milk. I think this is pretty sad! Why aren't people being told about this type of thing?

You know that what you eat you are it seems ....

<<Sept. 29 — By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A non-human molecule found in red meat and milk makes its way into the human system when eaten -- and seems to build up especially in tumors, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

The compound, called sialic acid, is found on the surfaces of animal cells but is not found in people, and may be one reason why animal-to-human organ and tissue transplants do not work well. Animals have a version called Neu5Gc, while humans carry Neu5Ac.

Varki, who is not a vegetarian, noted that many studies have linked a diet rich in meat and milk with cancer, heart disease and other diseases. >>

<<Autoimmune disease occur when the body mistakenly attacks healthy tissue and include type-1 or juvenile diabetes and some types of arthritis. "In this regard, it is interesting that vegetarian diet has been suggested to improve rheumatoid arthritis," they wrote.>>

more here ...

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20030929_339.html

[DrWeird]

1. HOLY JEEEZUS FUCKING CHRIIIST!

WHY THE HELL ARE THERE MOLECULES IN MY FOOD?! WHO PUT THEM THERE?!

[stickdog]

3. LOL.

"If God wanted us to be vegetarians, why did he make animals out of meat?"

[MisterP]

8. so are humans...

[karlschneider]

5. And what the hell are all these H2O molecules doing in my glass????????

:eyes:
:eyes:
Let's just pass a law against chemicals.
:grr:
Morons.

[gkdmaths]

20. HOLY FARKING CRAP BATMAN!

Seriously, I couldnt have said it better myself.

:thumbsup:

[kutastha]

2. ...

What should people be told? Are they going to understand the biochemistry of this extremely loose association? Or should they just be told "Milk and red meat will kill you"? The researchers themselves state that they have to do further investigation to see if this has any relevance to the advancement of disease.

I'll have to read the article, but its appearance in PNAS doesn't warrant any change in my diet, that's for sure.

[LifeDuringWartime]

4. well from what ive gathered/guessed

dont eat red meat or drink milk if you have cancer! it sounds like it *could* make the tumors bigger

NOT A DOCTOR

[kutastha]

7. ...

Doubtful that it would make tumors bigger. The researchers mention that antibodies are made to it. Anything not native to the human body is going to result in the generation of an antibody. Certain individuals are susceptible to autoimmune diseases because of genetic abnormalities that allow the immune system to recognize self-molecules as non-self.

How's the Neu5Gc get into the tumor? Sialic acid is a glycolipid that occurs on the surface of cells. Perhaps the cancer cells have defects in proteins that synthesize the sialic acid and this results in the Neu5Gc variant versus the one that occurs normally in humans. But if you take into consideration that the body generates antibodies to Neu5Gc, then the cancer patient would recognize the tumor cell as non-self and the immune system might have an easier time of attacking the tumor, versus having it grow.

But then again, I really should read the article.

[karlschneider]

6. I'll worry about it as I eat the T-bone steak that's on the grill now.

not

[lindashaw]

9. Hmmm...nothing has to die to keep me alive and healthy :)

on edit...except a soybean, maybe

[Guaranteed]

10. MILK will kill you??????????????????

Milk, the most natural food AROUND???? This is a killer?

[Heitie]

19. It IS the most natural food...

...for baby cows.

;)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

22. But your ability to digest it

depends largely on whether your ancestors kept dairy cattle over the millennia.

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

13. you realize no one cares if you change your diet

This is not a political campaign, but when it comes to diet and medicine there is alot of misinformation out there that benefits large corporations(and corporate power is tied deeply to the repubelikking party)

Believe it or not, the pharmeceutical industry loves it when you get sick.

The meat industry loves it if you over consume meat.

These fat corporations get fatter and fatter as people abuse their bodies by not inquiring deeper.

The United States makes up 6% of the world's population yet
consumes 60 % of the world's meat.
Normal?

The U.S. has a 'big' problem with the word "BIG"-
(more obesity than any other nation.)


Bad eating habits and sheeple mentality. ("It's 0okay, everyone else says it is ok")--We've always dun it thata way--sounds like the 60's in the South when Blacks were attempting to attain "human" status.
We always had separrrite fusillities 'round here.
MLK refused to accept this.
and somehow this country did evolve.

Through a few key people's digging deeper and not accepting things just because "everybody else does" we will continue to evolve in a positive direction.

With the advancement of industrialized farming, the torture done to innocent creatures is so horrendous-- and all just so that corporations can make big money !!---this can be very disturbing to many compassionate people.

The evolution is here.

Just like the civil rights movement made it by increasing overall awareness, so will this society continue to evolve for the greater good of each individual through an increasing awareness-- at least enough to where people begin to think about the affect they have on their environment.
To "think" before accepting is the way of Democracy.

When we see that cancer patients are big business and sick people mean millions in profits to cold hearted assholes who get rich on them, maybe we can all start to at least examine what we do with our own bodies and what affect that way have on our overall well being.
(what about the tobacco industry?)
Meat is pumped full of nasty hormones,chemicals,and antibiotics.

The destruction of the rainforest(for Burger grazing land )is the destruction of our oxygen supply.-- and the suffering of individual 'lesser' beings who are dismembered sometimes while still alive deeply disturbs the hearts of those people fortunate enough to be able to experience "compassion".

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/1358

Somehow the family farm has become non existent and the industrialized farm that has replaced it has become as disgusting as the oil industry that is destroying this planet.
I CAN'T support EITHER INDUSTRY.
I know that the gasoline combustion engine (built at the turn of the last century) is absolutely obsolete.
(--new hybrids work fine)

(but you can support whatever you want)

Just knowing you are helping these sleezey profiteers before you help them gives you a fighting chance to make an educated choice...


EAT away.

Don't question anything if you don't want to.
I myself reserve the right to be aware.

http://www.veganoutreach.org/whyvegan/

[kutastha]

14. ...

Well, you go grow your food. When you figure out how to grow insulin in your garden, let me know.

[pschoeb]

11. Crappy science reporting, per usual standards

"The compound, called sialic acid, is found on the surfaces of animal cells but is not found in people, and may be one reason why animal-to-human organ and tissue transplants do not work well. Animals have a version called Neu5Gc, while humans carry Neu5Ac."

Actually sialic acid IS found in humans, its just we only have the Neu5Ac form whereas they have BOTH Neu5Gc and Neu5Ac. This journalist should learn how to write. This is due to a mutation that causes a loss of hydroxylase activity that converts Neu5Ac to Neu5Gc(the differnce between these is a single oxygen atom) in humans, this took place after divergence with Great Apes as they have this activity. One could also talk about the "dangerous" chemical vitamin C that is created by almost all mammals but primates, this is a defect and makes primates dependant on food sources of vitamin C. Tumor cells consume large amounts of vitamin C, humans don't make it, oh no vitamin C will KILL YOU!!!!! (sarcasm).

Traces of Neu5Gc are also found in human fetal material, so the likely link to tumor Neu5Gc material is probably not dietary, but some kind of regression in tumor cells. Also creation of antibodies doesn't seem to happen naturally, except in some cases of infection, or in malignansies. repeat after me, correlation is not causation.

This difference between apes and man, might hold significance in brain development, because Neu5Gc production is suppresed in most mammalian brains. It possible that complete suppression of Neu5Gc allowed human's brains to develope to a new level, this, of course, is still educated speculation, as no good studies have been done yet.

Patrick Schoeb

[kutastha]

12. the problem with this stuff

Is the reporters try to sex it up and dumb it down. Then everyone thinks they should stop eating milk and red meat just like they think the miniscule amount of acyrlamide in French fries (found in one isolated study) will kill them.

[Rex]

18. Also reported - humans are no longer animals.

See, there are animal cells and er...human cells. Yeah. Humans fall into the Tubeuswatchus kingdom, a newly discovered taxon.

[henslee]

26. WOW, AWESOME POST...

[JackSwift]

15. Vegetarianism is Murder! Murder most foul!

Don't love animals, eat them. After all beastiality is illegal for a reason! And did you know that vegetables have molecules that meat doesn't? They they have entirely different cellular structures? Tumors also have different cellular structures! See!

[colorado_ufo]

16. Well - er - this would make sense IF

vegetarians never got tumors. And unfortunately, this is not true. Neoplasms (both malignant and benign) represent a far more complex problem, with many possible sources and causes.

That having been said, a vegetarian lifestyle does have many other health benefits, providing that care is taken to ensure a balance of nutrients.

[Stuckinthebush]

17. What about fish?

You can have my steak, but don't mess with my Tilapia.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. So do Inuit

following a traditional diet, that is, almost entirely meat and fish and maybe a few berries or what have you during the brief summer, have a high rate of cancer? What about the Maasai of Africa, who live on blood and milk (blecch) and meat? Or what about the West African tribe (I forget which one, the Fulani maybe?) who are cattle herders, and who, during their cattle drives across barren regions, live almost entirely on dairy products?

We evolved as omnivores. Our closest relatives, the chimpanzees, are omnivores. Most human cultures throughout history have been omnivorous. The only vegan cultures (aside from people too poor to afford animal protein) I know of before modern times have been some sects of Buddhist monks and strict Eastern Orthodox Christians during Lent. Even Hindu vegetarians eat dairy products and unfertilized eggs.

There seem to be individual differences in metabolism of food. Two of the best known are lactose intolerance among ethnic groups that don't have a tradition of keeping dairy cattle, and inability to metabolize alcohol properly among many East Asians.

Five of my graduate school friends converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, and with the zeal of converts, they decided to go vegan during Lent. Some handled it just fine and claimed that they'd never felt better in their life, but others felt so spaced-out that they lasted about a week before they felt they had to have some milk or eggs so they could, as one friend put it, "get their brains back."

Individual differences.

Before playing food police, take the possibility of metabolic differences into account. For example, soy is a pretty essential part of a vegan diet, yet I've become sensitive to it and can't handle more than the amount of tofu found in the typical bowl of miso soup. Yet I actually like tofu and used to snack on it, and I liked soy smoothies. But the reaction (involving severe heartburn and a burning sensation in my mucus membranes) isn't worth it anymore.

I really don't care what vegans or anyone else eats. I've observed that all the nutritional experts, vegetarian or otherwise, agree on one thing:eating fruits and vegetables is GOOD. But I'm not going to nag anyone about their diet, because based on my own experiences with the food police, having my food preferences treated as some sort of sin only makes me want to act in a contrary manner.

[Emillereid]

23. Vegetarianism just about killed me --

I'm sure some people do OK with it -- but not me. Never been so sick. In fact, it was probably the addition of animal/fish protein and fats that put our early ancestors on the track of being 'big brained' human. Eating meat sure came in handy when we were hit with thousands of years of ice ages too. I hate to break to you, but those non-hunter/gatherer vegetarians died out. We are the result of those early martyrs who learned how to eat mastodon steak with their salad. It was a dirty job, but somebody had to do it. For another perspective go to:

http://www.beyondveg.com/

Professor Eaton is a good source of information about the evolution of the human diet.

www.westonaprice.org

www.mercola.com

G

[dArKeR]

24. It's easy to give up meat but ICE CREAM! Oooh no Mr. Bill!

[Emillereid]

25. An article to whet the appetite

for information regarding the evolution of the human diet:

http://www.beyondveg.com/cordain-l/metab-carn/metabolic-carnivory-1a.shtml



Metabolic Evidence of Human
Adaptation to Increased Carnivory





by Loren Cordain, Ph.D.
Copyright © 1998 by Loren Cordain. All rights reserved.







IMPORTANT WORD DEFINITIONS: Dentition: Teeth. Hominids: Bipedal primates, including human beings and our bipedal ancestors in evolutionary prehistory. Obligate, as in "obligate carnivore" (cats are obligate carnivores in their natural environment): Able to exist or survive only in a particular environment or by assuming a particular role (definition from The American Heritage Dictionary, 3rd edition). Pongid: The class of ape mostly closely related to humans, consisting of--in order of genetic and evolutionary relatedness to us--the chimpanzee, gorilla, and orangutan. Plasma (as in "plasma levels of taurine"): Refers to levels of nutrients as measured in the blood. Precursor (as in "precursor fatty acids"): Dietary nutrients which can be converted by the body into other needed nutrients not obtained in the diet itself. Hepatic: Of, or related to, the liver. Lipids: Fatty acids, i.e., dietary "fats." Coprophagy: Ingestion of fecal material, whether intentional or unintentional.



Based on and edited from a posting to the Paleodiet listgroup on 1/15/98.

I am in agreement with previous posts that human dentition is adapted for a generalized diet composed of both plant and animal foods, and that human populations show amazing variability in their plant-to-animal food subsistence ratios. However, it is important to recognize that hominids have evolved important metabolic and biochemical adaptations which are indicative of an increasing physiological dependence upon animal-based foods. Further, comprehensive compilations of hunter-gatherer subsistence strategies indicate that whenever it is ecologically possible, humans will almost always consume more animal food than plant food.






Background: Hunter-gatherer plant/animal subsistence ratios.

Our laboratory has recently compiled the plant/animal-food subsistence ratio data in the Ethnographic Atlas for all worldwide hunter-gatherer populations which have been studied either historically or by contemporary anthropologists. The analysis shows that in the majority (61.3%) of worldwide hunter-gatherers, gathered plant food represents 35% or less of the total food utilized. Only 2.2% of the world's hunter-gatherers derive 66% or more of their total foods from plants. Further, not a single hunter-gather population derives 86% or more of its total calories from plant foods.

The most frequently occurring (mode) plant/animal subsistence ratio for worldwide hunter-gatherers is 16-25% plant/75-84% animal, and the median value is 26-35% plant/65-74% animal. These values corroborate five careful modern studies of hunter-gatherers showing a mean energy (caloric) intake from animal-food sources to be 59% .......

[AngryWhiteLiberal]

27. Mmmm... screw the vegans. Make mine a bloody rare mess.

We evolved canines (teeth) for a reason and as long as I have mine...red meat will be on the menu.

JB

[DemBones DemBones]

28. Thanks for posting this, though the responses suggest eating meat

causes hostility to vegetarians or anything suggesting meat or other animal products might be harmful to human health. :shrug:

Because I have lupus, which is an autoimmune disease that some believe is helped by a vegetarian diet, we are now in the process of switching to vegetarianism and ultimately veganism. We are also concerned by the increased incidence of disease in animals -- mad cow disease has appeared in Canada and E. coli and Salmonella outbreaks occur from time to time, along with Listeria and other less common meat-borne infections. This article suggests yet another problem with meat consumption, or at least with over-consumption. I will find it difficult to give up eating meat, drinking milk, etc., because I love a good rare steak, roast rabbit, bacon, barbecued ribs, roast beef , roast lamb -- just so many things! But if not eating those yummy meats makes me feel better, it will be worth it.

I think it's especially difficult to jump into vegetarianism too quickly and that some people just cannot be vegetarians. Our daughter has been a vegetarian for about 17 years, vegan for the last four or so, and is very healthy and very slim. She says giving up meat gave her more energy, as well as causing her to lose weight, so I hope that will be true for me and her dad, too Her husband would like to be a vegetarian because he loves animals as living things as much as she does but he feels terrible without meat in his diet. They prove that carnivores and vegans can coexist happily.