One secret of balanced nutrition may be a malodorous acid which human cells cannot make for themselves.
Prof. Mumblebard claims: “Osteoporosis and skin cancer are both caused by effects of sunlight on the human skin, with osteoporosis resulting from too little exposure to ultraviolet rays and skin cancer resulting from too much exposure to the same rays. In the case of osteoporosis, a more direct cause is deficiency in calcium and vitamin D. The way to prevent osteoporosis and skin cancer is moderate exposure to sunlight with boosted consumption of calcium-rich dairy products, particularly those fortified with vitamin D. This makes sense because nutritional sufficiency can be achieved without a risk of skin cancer by firstly sunning the skin just enough to produce vitamin D and secondly supplementing the diet with dietary calcium and vitamin D.”
Robin and the Honey Badger respond: “It’s paradoxical that human populations appear to suffer from insufficient exposure to sunlight, causing osteoporosis, at the same time as excessive exposure to sunlight, causing skin cancer. One or both causes must be mistaken. If it were true that ultraviolet rays are causal, we would expect that any population with osteoporosis would be free of skin cancer, and any population with skin cancer would be free of osteoporosis. Sunlight, although harmful in excess, is more likely mechanism than cause; and dairy products are likely to be valuable for their vitamin content rather than their calcium. The illogicality in the current consensus reflects a confusion of cause and effect in both osteoporosis and skin cancer, corrected as follows. Vitamin D is made from cholesterol in a process depending on the availability of butyric acid, an unrecognised vitamin found in few foods other than milk. This chemical relative of saturated fatty acids – which cannot be made in human cells – is present in butterfat but not other fats or oils, and is alternatively synthesised from resistant starch by bacteria in the healthy human colon. If insufficient butyric acid is absorbed from the gut, a likely result is deficiency of vitamin D, leading to osteoporosis. At the same time, diets poor in butterfat and fibre tend to oversupply glucose and polyunsaturated fats, both of which are likely to be carcinogenic. In summary, we suggest firstly that skin cancer is caused partly by deficiency of a previously unrecognised vitamin, and secondly that osteoporosis is a parallel disorder in which proliferation of cells – although not cancerous – demineralises the bones.”
Please join us here at the Bio-edge with your own comments. In the discussion below we encourage links to any evidence supporting either Prof. Mumblebard or Robin and the Honey Badger. Illustrations are welcome but please cite all sources or we may be forced under copyright to delete your comment.
***
Featured image: Butyric acid molecule model by Ben Mills (Public Domain, Butyric Acid)