2007年VOA标准英语-Western Pattern Diet Linked to Recurring Colon

By Melinda Smith
Washington
15 August 2007
 

The Western diet, consisting of high fat foods, is not beneficial for cancer patients

Worldwide statistics show that colon¹ cancer kills more than 600,000 people every year.  Now, a new study confirms that diet can play a powerful role in treatment.  VOA's Melinda Smith has details.

John Coughlin

Fifty-five year old John Coughlin looks like the picture of health.  And he thought he was -- until a routine colonoscopy revealed he was in stage three of colon cancer.  Stage three means that tumor² cells have spread to other organs and lymph nodes near the colon. "I went through six weeks of concurrent³ radiation and chemotherapy.  In December of that year I had major surgery to remove the lower part of my colon and that was followed by six months of weekly chemotherapy."

At least 1,000 colon cancer patients like John Coughlin were part of a study that compared their diets.  All were in stage three of the disease.  Researchers followed their progress to see whether the cancer came back or whether the patient died.  Their findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Dr. Jeffrey Meyerhardt

The study's author, Dr. Jeffrey Meyerhardt of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts found that cutting back on red meat, for example, has a powerful effect. "It's not really increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables, but really trying to reduce the amount of red meat intake⁴ and fatty foods and sugary 'desserty' [sweet desserts] foods, that seems to be protective for colon cancer recurrences⁵ and survival."

The high fat diet chosen by many people in developed countries -- and a growing number of those living in developing countries -- is called the Western Pattern Diet.  In the study, those cancer patients who ate fattening⁶ foods had almost four times the risk of reoccurrence or death.

Dr. Jeffrey Meyerhardt adds, "The biggest surprise is actually the impact that a western pattern diet seems to have."

Patients who switched to greater quantities of fruits, vegetables, poultry⁷ and fish appeared to fare better. 

Fish, whole grains and vegetable are a better diet choice

Dr. Meyerhardt issues a note of caution for those patients diagnosed with colon cancer.  Improving your diet can help, he says, but getting good medical treatment is critical. "Patients with colon cancer still should have surgery and discuss with their physicians about their need for chemotherapy after surgery.  This is really an additional step patients can consider -- who have colon cancer -- to improve their outcome."

Eating more fish, chicken, and grains such as brown rice has been an easy decision for John Couglin. "To cut down from one steak a week to one steak a month is not a big deal."

1 colon   

n.冒号，结肠，直肠

参考例句：

• Here,too,the colon must be followed by a dash.这里也是一样，应当在冒号后加破折号。
• The colon is the locus of a large concentration of bacteria.结肠是大浓度的细菌所在地。

2 tumor   

n.（肿）瘤，肿块(英)tumour

参考例句：

• He was died of a malignant tumor.他死于恶性肿瘤。
• The surgeons irradiated the tumor.外科医生用X射线照射那个肿瘤。

3 concurrent   

adj.同时发生的，一致的

参考例句：

• You can't attend two concurrent events!你不能同时参加两项活动！
• The twins had concurrent birthday. 双胞胎生日在同一天。

4 intake   

n.吸入，纳入；进气口，入口

参考例句：

• Reduce your salt intake.减少盐的摄入量。
• There was a horrified intake of breath from every child.所有的孩子都害怕地倒抽了一口凉气。

5 recurrences   

n.复发，反复，重现( recurrence的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• It was a melancholy tempered by recurrences of faith and resignation and simple joy. 心中不时产生信念，乐天知命的情绪，单纯的欣悦，从而冲淡了忧郁的气质。 来自辞典例句
• The interval without tumor burden turned shorter after multiple recurrences. 多次复发者复发间期逐渐缩短。 来自互联网

6 fattening   

adj.（食物）要使人发胖的v.喂肥( fatten的现在分词 )；养肥（牲畜）；使（钱）增多；使（公司）升值

参考例句：

• The doctor has advised him to keep off fattening food. 医生已建议他不要吃致肥食物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We substitute margarine for cream because cream is fattening. 我们用人造黄油代替奶油，因为奶油会使人发胖。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 poultry   

n.家禽，禽肉

参考例句：

• There is not much poultry in the shops. 商店里禽肉不太多。
• What do you feed the poultry on? 你们用什么饲料喂养家禽?