According to the New York Times this morning:

Colon Cancer Rates Rising in Young Adults

According to the actual abstract of the Journal of the American Medical Association study:

Based on current trends, in 2030, the incidence rates for colon and rectal cancers will increase by 90.0% and 124.2%, respectively, for patients 20 to 34 years and by 27.7% and 46.0%, respectively, for patients 35 to 49 years.

Very quickly, in 2030 there will be about 100% more 20 year olds with colorectal cancer, presented at a more advanced stage than the elderly people who currently are contracting this type of cancer. THOSE PEOPLE ARE FIVE YEARS OLD NOW.

I wonder what could be causing all of that extra cancer in school children. Of course the article and the study only indicate that there is this huge spike in the number of our babies that are getting colon cancer.

Back to the article in the Times:

The study draws no conclusions about whether screening should begin at a younger age. “There are always risks and unintended consequences of screening tests,” said the senior author, Dr. George J. Chang, an associate professor of surgery and health services research at the University of Texas.

For now, he said, “We have to pay attention to symptoms with which our patients present, and work them up by including colorectal cancer as a part of the differential diagnosis.”

Of course we should be smart enough now to know what is causing these cancers in our children and grandchildren. Someday in the distant future they will figure out which bacteria in our guts is being fed some poison in our processed foods and producing for us a toxin that leads, over years and years of exposure, to cancer. It is going to take a very long time to prove  beyond a shadow of scientific doubt what it is, and then find a pill that can be taken to break the process and prevent it.

In the mean time, say it with me…stop eating processed food! Don’t feed your kids artificial ingredients! It truly is a matter of life and death. Death, or perhaps just life from age 20 with a colostomy bag tied to your most prized possession. Stop eating so much sugar or diet sweetened food. Make your own food, buy real things, single ingredient things.

Yesterday in the Washington Post, Michael Pollan and Mark Bittman joined forces to call on the Obama Administration to do something about our lack of a National Food Policy. They want him to unilaterally call for some kind of coherent cooperation between the different branches of government that are operating for the benefit of constituencies that currently operate against one another.

Because of unhealthy diets, 100 years of progress in improving public health and extending lifespan has been reversed. Today’s children are expected to live shorter lives than their parents. In large part, this is because a third of these children will develop Type 2 diabetes, formerly rare in children and a preventable disease that reduces life expectancy by several years. At the same time, our fossil-fuel-dependent food and agriculture system is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than any other sector of the economy but energy. And the exploitative labor practices of the farming and fast-food industries are responsible for much of the rise in income inequality in America.

We find ourselves in this situation because government policy in these areas is made piecemeal. Diet-related chronic disease, food safety, marketing to children, labor conditions, wages for farm and food-chain workers, immigration, water and air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, and support for farmers: These issues are all connected to the food system. Yet they are overseen by eight federal agencies. Amid this incoherence, special interests thrive and the public good suffers.

They combine their voices and that of the Washington Post to call for a laundry-list of good ideas for doing something to improve our food production system. Great stuff, and entirely impossible to actually implement. After the election last week, does anyone in their right mind think that this President and his new Congress will get any of these things done? Personally I feel that if someone is not going to get rich from the changes, or if the changes will limit anyone’s gravy train that nothing will be done for us to protect us from our food makers. Ever. In a Million Years.

We are on our own, and we CAN do something about the foods that are made for us that are unhealthy in myriad different ways. Quit buying imitation foods. Quit buying industrially sweetened foods. Start eating real foods. Send your kids to school carrying real foods until lunch rooms once again quit feeding them pizza for breakfast and pizza for lunch. Take control of your fuel supply. Realize that you are putting yourself in great danger if you keep eating what you are eating.

And now, for my sweet Mom, here is a breakfast she can eat that does not have any added sugar, no eggs, and will get them off to a great start on their busy schedules:

Scrambled Tofu and Spinach breakfast.

Try it out, instead of candied cereal, bread or pancakes or any other hyper-sweetened chronic poison source. No eggs in case you really can’t eat them yet.