The China Study by Thomas Campbell

COMMON CANCERS: BREAST, PROSTATE, LARGE BOWEL 173

to answer these questions. White South Africans have seventeen times
more large bowel cancer than black South Africans, and this was first
thought to be due to the much higher consumption of dietary fiber
among black South Africans provided by unrefined maize.^74 However,
in more recent years, black South Africans have been increasingly con-
suming commercially refined maize-meal-maize minus its fiber. They
now eat even less fiber than the white South Africans. Yet, colon cancer
rates among blacks remain at a low level,15 which calls into question
how much of the cancer-protective effect is due to dietary fiber alone.
A more recent study76 showed that the higher colon cancer rates among
white South Africans could well be due to their elevated consumption
of animal protein (77 vs. 25 g/day), total fat (ll5 vs. 71 g/day) and
cholesterol (408 vs. 2ll mg/day), as seen in Chart 8.5. The researchers
suggested that the much higher colon cancer rates among white South

CHART 8.5: INTAKE OF ANIMAL PROTEIN, TOTAL FAT AND

CHOLESTEROL AMONG BLACK AND WHITE SOUTH AFRICANS

450

400

350

300

Daily Intake 250

(milligra ms) 200

150

100

50

120

100

80

Daily Intake 60

(Grams)

40

20

o

Animal Protein

Cholesterol

Total Fat

• Black SA
  o White SA