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posted by n1 on Sunday May 17 2015, @02:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the !soul-food dept.

The Center for American Progress reports:

African Americans, a group plagued by significantly high rates of obesity, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and other physical ailments. A recent study suggests the answer may lie in the diets of their counterparts across the Atlantic Ocean in the rural parts of the Motherland.

In a study conducted at the University of Pittsburgh, 20 African Americans and 20 South Africans switched diets for two weeks. In this time, the Africans consumed traditional American food--meat and cheese high in fat content--while African Americans took on a traditional African diet--high in fiber and low in fat, with plenty of vegetables, beans, and cornmeal, with little meat.

After the exchange, researchers performed colonoscopies on both groups and found that those in the African diet group increased the production of butyrate, a fatty acid proven to protect against colon cancer. Members of the American diet group, on the other hand, developed changes in their gut that scientists say precede the development of cancerous cells.

[...]"we used biomarkers and looked at the proliferation rate that has been tied to cancer," Dr. Stephen J. O'Keefe, the lead researcher, told ThinkProgress. "We were astounded by the gravity and the magnitude of the changes [which] happened within two weeks."

 
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  • (Score: 2) by Gravis on Sunday May 17 2015, @02:56PM

    by Gravis (4596) on Sunday May 17 2015, @02:56PM (#184054)

    while i suspect, i don't actually know if this means they tested all black people. south africa has a lot of white people. [bbci.co.uk] globalization has created a political correctness quagmire where nationality and race confused. science should really be above this crap.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @03:02PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 17 2015, @03:02PM (#184055)

    It's implied. We're only ~10% of the population anyway and the diet described is more typical of black people. More importantly, American blacks are descended from a different region. Given that this is the most genetically diverse continent it makes little sense to compare the two groups.

  • (Score: 2) by zocalo on Sunday May 17 2015, @03:12PM

    by zocalo (302) on Sunday May 17 2015, @03:12PM (#184063)
    Science generally *is* above this crap. It's the PC brigade that like to find the ethnic bias in everything where there might even be a hint of something that could be pinned to a specific racial/ethnic background. Yes, we're all humans, but we're also a collection of slightly different variations on that theme and that is going to mean that there are differences in the way that some groups respond to given stimuli, in their physical characteristics, and many other delineating factors. Take this to its logical conclusion and at some point we are going to have to halt research into sickle cell anemia (as just one of many examples) because anyone daring to work in the field is going to be branded racist. We like to claim that justice is blind, perhaps - within reasonable moral limits - it's time that we take the same view of science?
    --
    UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 18 2015, @04:30PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 18 2015, @04:30PM (#184623)

      It is the Social Justice people that are the actual racists and sexists.