Colon heat and colon cancer.

Epidemiological findings on the relation between foods and colon cancer are inconsistent. Many, but far from all, found positive associations for meat and fat and negative ones for vegetables and fruits. Explanations so far have focused on direct biochemical conversions in the colon or transit time, but they remain unable to explain the contradictory observations. One aspect grossly ignored has been bacterially produced heat which is beyond somatic control. A present day affluent lifestyle includes a more sedentary life, the strongest of all risk factors for colon cancer, with more sitting and less diffusion of bacterial heat, more fat and sugar, rich in energy and less of energy poor foods like cereals. A temperature higher by less than 1 degrees C in the colon over decades may promote tumour growth to a distinguishable extent.

Diet and colorectal cancer mortality: secular trends over 30 years in 15 European countries.

Many western European countries have increased consumption of meat and fat conspicuously from 1961 to 1990 according to FAO 'food disappearance' data. These trends within countries compare well with intake data obtained by weighing and questionnaires. For three countries more meat and fat is combined with small changes in plant foods, but nevertheless standardized mortalities from colorectal cancer drop. For nine countries meat, fat and plant foods increase and mortalities drop. For two countries, there is moderately more meat, fat and plant foods increase, and in one there is drastically more meat and a high consumption of plant foods, associated with rising mortalities. Overall, there is no consistent pattern.