What Doctors Don't Tell YouWhat’s the secret of the Asian diet? People who eat it every day seem to suffer from fewer systemic problems than those who consume mainly a Western diet.
This is especially true for the hormone-dependent cancers that seem to thrive on our diet – or perhaps there’s something about the Asian diet that contains cancer-fighting qualities.
Nutritionists tend to believe the latter possibility, and they point to higher soy intake among the Asians as the reason. This may be the case, although Asians eat far less soy than we imagine, and then often as a dressing – which just happens to be the best way of consuming it.
But researchers at the University of California in Berkeley have put forward a different hypothesis. They reckon the key health-giving ingredient of the Asian diet is kelp. They say that kelp (Fucus vesiculosus) has anti-estrogenic effects, and they’ve proved it in a laboratory test on rats.
The theory isn’t revolutionary. It has been postulated in earlier studies, most especially one involving premenopausal women, but it’s been established in the new Berkeley trial.
Unfortunately, we’re no fans of animal testing. Aside from the ethical issues, there is the extremely pragmatic one that the findings rarely apply to humans. Let’s hope I’m wrong on this occasion.
Maryon Stewart
Daniel Redwood DC
Tom Ferguson MD