October was Breast Cancer Awareness Month, didn't you hear?
Why Awareness? Is there anyone out there who has never heard of Breast Cancer? Do you want to know why it wasn’t called Breast Cancer Prevention Month? I’ll tell you why, because its purpose is not to help women by preventing breast cancer; it is all about money.
It is obvious this pink product promotion kick is all about promoting mammograms so radiologists can make more money. They need plenty of awareness to counter all the recent research from large studies showing that mammograms aren’t too effective.1-3 It is clear that this was just another mammogram campaign and a fundraising effort designed to save money for the pharmaceutical companies so they don’t have to pay for the drug research to test expensive new chemotherapeutic agents.
If preventing human suffering and saving women's lives were the overriding purpose then promoting how to reduce the risk of developing breast cancer would be front and center as the main objective. Women should be getting notified of the scientific evidence that has accumulated in recent years that can enable women to avoid breast cancer. There are powerful protective steps women need to be aware of, such as:
- Exercise
- Stay slim
- Eat lots of green vegetables, onions, and mushrooms daily.
- Do not eat mass factory farmed dairy products, especially those given rBGH
- Stay away from fast foods and insulin promoting refined foods such as white flour and sweets.
- Do not eat mass factory farmed meats given antibiotics and growth promoting hormones.
Consider: these cancer non-profits are affiliated with drug companies and mammogram machine companies. They are also supported by companies such as Omaha Steaks, Pretzel Crisps, Boar’s Head Meats, General Mills, and ACH Foods (which makes margarine and cooking oils for fast food restaurants). They have no interest in preventing cancer, only treating it. The search for the magic “cure” for breast cancer is just another belief system with no reality behind it. I wish you a long life waiting for this to happen - that women can eat fast food, pasta, doughnuts, and bagels with cream cheese every day and then take a magic pill and not get cancer. Never gonna happen. The whole purpose of buying pink and raising money is to actually increase the amount of women with the diagnosis of cancer so they can be tested and treated, making more money for this billion dollar industry.
Hysterical wasn’t it that Southern Cancer Fried Chicken was selling pink buckets of the cancer-causing (junk food fried) chicken to raise money for breast cancer awareness? A skull and crossbones on the chicken bucket would have made more sense than a pink ribbon, but what do I know? I am sure next year we will see a pink Big Mac with a ribbon around it, and we will be encouraged to drink Pepsi for breast cancer awareness. I say let’s have some pink-ribboned cigarettes, and whiskey in pink bottles, too. I wonder if the cocaine pushers will get in on the act. Why not? Maybe even we can get the lawn service technicians that spray toxic weed killer on the neighbor’s lawn to dress in pink.
Let me tell you something, a cure is not coming soon. You’d better hedge your bets and eat right.
Acknowledgement of conflict of interest: Please note I (Dr. Fuhrman) have an interest in preventing women from getting breast cancer and as the research director of the Nutritional Research Project of the National Health Association am working on a research project on breast cancer prevention. If you are a woman who is willing to take a pledge to follow a nutritarian diet for prevention of cancer (for over 10 years) please put your name on the e-mail list at NutritionalResearch.org so we can contact you with the details as this research trial is fully established in the upcoming months. If you are interested in learning more about participation please enter your name where it says "Sign Up For Updates."
References:
1. Gotzsche PC, Nielsen M: Screening for breast cancer with mammography. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2009:CD001877.
2. Wright CJ, Mueller CB: Screening mammography and public health policy: the need for perspective. Lancet 1995;346:29-32.
3. Esserman L, Shieh Y, Thompson I: Rethinking Screening for Breast Cancer and Prostate Cancer. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association 2009;302:1685-1692.
