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The Effects of Soil and Diet on Disease

Bantu Cancer Registry, Butterworth, Transkei, South Africa

In South African there is a high incidence of esophageal cancer. An intensive study in the Transkei, a Province of South Africa, has shown the incidence of the disease to vary depending on location. These people do not share the diet of other racial groups in South Africa who do not have the same high frequency of the disease.

Many factors point to diet playing a major role in the carcinogenic process. These factors may, however, be the interaction of multiple factors one upon the other.

Diet is determined by the soil in which there may be abnormal metals, deficiency of essential elements, and increased silica and quartz. Diet can influence the tissue directly by containing potent carcinogens or weak carcinogens which may be potentiated by factors in the diet, acting directly by causing irritation, or indirectly by lowering the resistance of the body to disease.

There is still a great deal of work to be done which, although centering on diet, has many facets. One must of necessity keep the holistic approach until each factor is thoroughly investigated and the puzzle is eventually unraveled.

The investigation in the Transkei is primarily an epidemiologic one. This is, however, hard to divorce from an etiologic search. So many potential carcinogens can be found if one looks hard enough that, when no very outstanding factor of cause and effect is evident, it is well to look at the broad principles involved and study more closely the interaction of the multiple factors upon one another.

There is a high incidence of esophageal cancer in the Transkei where it is unevenly distributed over an area of 16,440 square miles (8). This high incidence has only been evident since the late 1940's and is slightly higher in males than females (5:4). The latter form a static population which subsists on the produce of their own farms, supplemented at times by refined goods, e.g., sugar, tea, and flour from the local Trading Store.