Go vegetarian to avoid
cancer, advises expert
Ahmedabad, August 1:
A VEGETARIAN diet is best to avoid the risk of cancer,
specially colon cancer, says Dr Masaki Fukunaga, a cancer
surgeon from Japan, who believes that Western food habits,
adopted by the Japanese, is responsible for the spread
of cancer in Japan.
Dr Fukunaga, head of laproscopy surgery at Juntendo
University’s Urayau Hospital, Chiba, Japan, was
here to perform laproscopic surgeries at the three-day,
Indo-Japanese Thoraco-Laproscopic Cancer Surgery Workshop,
which concluded on Sunday. He said laproscopic surgery
was advisable in cancers as well and not just in general
surgery. He said he had performed 1,500 laproscopic
surgeries in Japan, so far while the history of this
type of surgery is about 15-years-old.
According to him, gastric cancer was most prevalent
in Japan, followed by cancer of the colon because of
people’s tendency to have non-vegetarian food.
‘‘Fast food is not good for the colon and
it is best avoided. Better still, if you adopt vegetarian
food,’’ he said. He admitted that laproscopic
surgery was more expensive and time-consuming than open
surgery but it was patient-friendly, painless and cuts
hospitalisation time to enable people to return to work
earlier.
‘‘What is good about laproscopic surgery
is that unlike open surgery, you don’t have to
touch the organ with hands and bleeding is almost nil,’’
he said, admitting that the equipment was expensive
but over time the cost could be brought down as some
of it is re-usable. He and his three other fellow-surgeons
and their Indian counterparts performed eleven major
operations covering all organs. All operations were
done free of cost and doctors from Japan had brought
disposable instruments worth Rs 20 lakh with them to
show the latest techniques.
Earlier at the seminar, Dr Ramesh Ardhanari, cancer
surgeon from Madurai, said that doctors must be trained
thoroughly before performing laproscopic surgery instead
of experimenting on patients.
Dr Kiran C Kothari, head of minimal invasive surgery
department at Gujarat Cancer & Research Centre,
who organised the event, said this was first such workshop
held in the country in which so many cancer surgeries
involving all organs were performed. Other doctors from
Japan were Dr Sizuke Kaseda, thracoscopic surgeon from
Yokohama, Yosuke Izumi, laproscopic oesophegeal surgeon
Yosuke Izumi and Dr Kazuyuki Kojima, both from Tokyo.
Dr C Palanivelu from Coimbatore and Dr Shailesh Puntambekar
also performed surgeries. |
Hip-hop artists spreading the vegetarian word
BY LESLIE FULBRIGHT
Seattle Times
Posted on Tue, Jul. 27, 2004
Some hip-hop artists don't drink Tanqueray and Alize
and want no part of the late-night trips to the BK.
Take the socially conscious rap duo Dead Prez, whose
song "Be Healthy" includes the lyrics: "I
don't eat meat, no dairy, no sweets -- only ripe vegetables,
fresh fruit and whole wheat."
In recent years, hip-hop artists have started publicly
denouncing the unhealthy diets some of their counterparts
have long embraced. They are pushing the benefits of
holistic health in the black community, where high blood
pressure and cholesterol are common problems.
Singer Erykah Badu, an active promoter of the vegan
lifestyle, has been known to stop by Seattle's Hillside
Quickies Vegan Sandwich Shop, run by the Howell family.
"We get a lot of artists that come through here,"
said Ayinde Howell, a 25-year-old vegan and local rapper/poet,
"the ones who take care of their bodies."
The low-key vegan/soul-food cafe has hosted the likes
of The Roots, Saul Williams, Black Anger, Blackalicious
and the Lifesavas. Howell opened the business five years
ago, inspired by his mother, who has prepared wholesale
vegan foods for years.
Seattle has strong vegan and hip-hop communities, and
Howell is part of both. They don't often intersect.
"Hip-hop is largely black people, and black people
are not largely vegans," Howell said.
"With hip-hop, there is a little bit of machismo,
so 'Save the Animals' is not the most popular slogan.
"But now that the big artists are coming out,
they are having some influence."
At the forefront is rap mogul and entrepreneur Russell
Simmons, a strict vegan who is active in People for
the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
A recently released DVD, "Holistic Wellness for
the Hip-Hop Generation," speaks to young people
about diet and health. Created by filmmaker Supa Nova
Slom, the 110-minute documentary features appearances
by artists Badu, rapper Common and Stic.man from Dead
Prez.
Meanwhile, vegetarianism is gaining popularity not
only in hip-hop but in black communities across the
nation. An informal survey of African-American vegetarians
on the Web site www.blackvegetarians.org reveals that
the top three reasons given for eliminating meat are
health (34 percent), ethical reasons (14 percent) and
spiritual or religious reasons (12 percent).
Howell says bad diets are an epidemic in the black
community and are at least partly to blame for diseases
including cancer, arthritis, asthma, obesity and diabetes.
Nearly 75 percent of African-Americans are lactose intolerant
and a third suffer from hypertension.
Howell hopes hip-hop artists can deliver that message
to their listeners.
"Russell Simmons is doing a lot of different things
on many fronts," he said.
"If he can help people see they need to eat healthy,
and do it with hip-hop, more power to him." |
