John Arts' very informative article 4 February 'Good Health Past 50” included the statement that heart and cancer were diet and lifestyle diseases. R Smith of Bellevue (a cancer survivor) was quick to condemn that stating that cancer is, effectively, the luck of the draw because the writer had 'Drawn the short straw'. And that was in spite of growing up in the country, well feed with the goodness of homegrown meat and veges etc. Perhaps living in the country isn't necessarily a guarantee that one is ‘well feed'?
As far back as the 1920's researchers showed that individual vitamins and other nutritional elements influenced cancers. For example, Vitamin B17 was shown to kill malignant cells.
Because of soil deficiencies, sheep in Western Australia developed cancers, year after year. Research and trials with various mixes of vitamins and trace elements resulted in it being eradicated.
New Zealand soils, along with many parts of the world, are seriously deficient in the vital trace element Selenium. Extensive American research of hospital records covering religious and other groups who avoided highly refined foods, showed that they had less cancer than the same number of people whose diets were more ‘normal'.(abridged) G Allan, Tauranga.