From: tsf@CS.CMU.EDU (Timothy Freeman)
Subject: Re: What's wrong with skim milk for non-infants?
Summary: Skim milk decreases the chances of getting colon cancer.
Originator: tsf@U.ERGO.CS.CMU.EDU
Organization: Carnegie Mellon University
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 18:09:33 GMT

In article <BwyCIx.t6@wpg.com> russ@wpg.com (Russell Lawrence) writes:

   The Boston Nurses Study was a prospective study, and recorded 150 
   incidences of colon cancer by 1986.  The researchers examined 
   correlations between dairy intake and colon cancer, but not 
   calcium and colon cancer (I believe).  

I looked this up.  [Willet90] is the complete reference.

I suspect that the cancer-causing fat in whole milk approximately
cancels the cancer-preventing calcium in whole milk.

This is consistent with [Willet90] because that study finds no
significant correlation between *animal fat from dairy sources* and
colon cancer.  Since skim milk has no fat, they essentially ignored
the only intake of calcium from dairy products that is not balanced by
an intake of fat.  Animal fat from all other sources does cause
cancer, however.

[Slattery88] concludes that dairy product intake reduces the risk of
colon cancer.  This is to be expected since they include skim milk as
a dairy product.

[Thun92] finds no correlation between "Dairy and Eggs" and colon
cancer.  But eggs are high in fat, and they don't classify skim milk
as a dairy product (!) so this is consistent with my model as well.

There is also one paper [Wargovich91] describing studies with rats and
calcium-supplemented humans (not both at once!) that support the
hypothesis that calcium passing through the colon prevents cancer.

Studies looking at dietary fat [Thun92, Willet90] ignore nonfat milk,
so they don't get the conclusion that dairy products protect against
colon cancer, but they do conclude that animal fat from dairy products
does not cause colon cancer.

I'm going to continue drinking my skim milk for the time being.  Does
anyone have any comments? 

Tim Freeman

P.S. [Thun92] also concludes that regular aspirin use protects against
colon cancer.

P.P.S. Guess what kind of cancer people in my family tend to get?

Bibliography:

@article	( SLATTERY88,
key	=	"Slattery88" ,
author	=	"Martha L. Slattery and Ann W. Sorenson and Marilyn
H. Ford" ,
title	=	"Dietary Calcium Intake as a Mitigating Factor in
Colon Cancer" ,
journal	=	"American Journal of Epidemiology" ,
volume	=	"128" ,
number	=	"3" ,
year	=	"1988" ,
pages	=	"504--514" ,
keywords=	"colon cancer, calcium" ,
annote	=	"Tim has a copy." ,
bibdate	=	"Mon Sep 28 10:00:58 1992" ,
)

@article	( THUN92,
key	=	"Thun92" ,
author	=	"Michael J. Thun and others" ,
title	=	"Risk Factors for Fatal Colon Cancer in a Large
Prospective Study" ,
journal	=	"Journal of the National Cancer Institute" ,
volume	=	"84" ,
number	=	"19" ,
month	=	"October 7" ,
year	=	"1992" ,
pages	=	"1491--1500" ,
keywords=	"colon cancer, tsf, aspirin" ,
annote	=	"Tim has a copy." ,
bibdate	=	"Fri Oct  9 11:10:41 1992" ,
)

@article	( WARGOVICH91,
key	=	"Wargovich91" ,
author	=	"Wichael J. Wargovich and Patrick M. Lynch and
Bernard Levin" ,
title	=	"Modulating Effects of Calcium in Animal Models of
Colon Carcinogenesis and Short-term Studies in Subjects at Increased
Risk for Colon Cancer" ,
journal	=	"American Journal of Clinical Nutrition" ,
volume	=	"54" ,
year	=	"1991" ,
pages	=	"202S-5S" ,
keywords=	"calcium, colon cancer" ,
annote	=	"Tim has a copy." ,
bibdate	=	"Sun Sep 27 12:53:29 1992" ,
)

@article	( WILLETT90,
key	=	"Willett90" ,
author	=	"Walter C. Willett and others" ,
title	=	"Relation of Meat, Fat, and Fiber Intake to the
Risk of Colon Cancer in a Prospective Study Among Women" ,
journal	=	"New England Journal of Medicine" ,
month	=	"December 13" ,
year	=	"1990" ,
pages	=	"1664-1672" ,
keywords=	"colon, fat, cancer, tsf" ,
annote	=	"Tim has a copy." ,
)
--
Tim Freeman <tsf@cs.cmu.edu>    CompuServe ID 71045,2267 checked occasionally.
When they took the fourth amendment, I was silent because I don't deal drugs.
When they took the sixth amendment, I kept quiet because I know I'm innocent.
When they took the second amendment, I said nothing because I don't own a gun.
Now they've come for the first amendment, and I can't say anything at all.