I was surprised to know that not only my grandfather, but also his mother and brother, had appendicitis issues. However, since then, nobody from that line of descent has had such problems. I knew they used a lot of olive oil, and I asked him if it came in large metal cans. He said yes, and that it was imported from Italy (to the USA). Knowing what he ate as a child, I knew he couldn't have had arachidonic acid in his cells, and knowing that appendicitis is an inflammatory problem, this seemed to require an explanation. Another piece of information that might be relevant is that stomach cancer was the major cancer killer back then (in the 1930s) and it is now a "minor" cancer in the USA. It took me a few days to think about these interesting facts.
Then it dawned on me. Food back then was not supplemented with antioxidants and antibacterial or antifungal agents, as is the case now. Low-quality olive oil transported across the Atlantic Ocean and then used in cooking must have been really harsh on the GI tract, as well as the "good bacteria" that one hopes populates it. This was another factor, one that most Americans at the time didn't have to face, because they were not ingesting low-quality olive oil used in cooking. These bouts of appendicitis they had seem to have been acute (if his descriptions were accurate) and arachidonic acid is especially problematic in a chronic inflammatory context. Without AA in your cells, you can still have acute inflammation, as I've had with some cuts and also "ingrown" toenail issues over the last few years. Thus, the high incidence of stomach cancer was likely due to constant problems with food that began to go rancid in the stomach or was full of bacteria or fungus, leading to frequent bouts of acute inflammation in the stomach. |
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