European Code against Cancer 4th Edition:Diet and cancer

AbstractLifestyle factors, including diet, have long been recognised as potentially important determinants of cancer risk. In addition to the significant role diet plays in affecting body fatness, a risk factor for several cancers, experimental studies have indicated that diet may influence the cancer process in several ways. Prospective studies have shown that dietary patterns characterised by higher intakes of fruits, vegetables, and whole-grain foods, and lower intakes of red and processed meats and salt, are related to reduced risks of death and cancer, and that a healthy diet can improve overall survival after diagnosis of breast and colorectal cancers. There is evidence that high intakes of fruit and vegetables may reduce the risk of cancers of the aerodigestive tract, and the evidence that dietary fibre protects against colorectal cancer is convincing. Red and processed meats increase the risk of colorectal cancer. Diets rich in high-calorie foods, such as fatty and sugary foods, may lead to increased calorie intake, thereby promoting obesity and leading to an increased risk of cancer. There is some evidence that sugary drinks are related to an increased risk of pancreatic cancer.Taking this evidence into account, the 4th edition of the European Code against Cancer recommends that people have a healthy diet to reduce their risk of cancer: they should eat plenty of whole grains, pulses, vegetables and fruits; limit high-calorie foods (foods high in sugar or fat); avoid sugary drinks and processed meat; and limit red meat and foods high in salt

Mass privatization in post-communist states: Ideas, interests and economic regime change

Mainstream theories of property rights formation focus on the self-interested, rationally calculated pursuit of wealth and power as the motivations behind the development of new ownership arrangements. Absent from these theories are the ideological and cognitive components in the creation of property rights systems. This lacuna is extremely problematic when considering the post-communist privatization experience in which ideas and beliefs have profoundly influenced the particular form that new property institutions have taken. This dissertation reexamines the determinants of property rights transformation and highlights the influence of ideas on the reformulation of ownership regimes in Eastern Europe through a detailed analysis of the mass privatization experiences in Russia and the Czech Republic. I argue that the beliefs held by policy makers and key groups, such as those regarding the efficacy of state ownership, the nation\u27s place in a post-Cold War international community, as well as attitudes toward the past communist regime determined the choice of transformative mechanisms and post-communist patterns of ownership. In analyzing post-communist property rights reform, my dissertation directly engages in the debate over the interplay of ideas and material interests in determining policy outcomes and participates more generally in discussions over the utility and applicability of the rational choice approach to political analysis. In this study, I do not assert that ideas supplant interests, but instead, argue first, that ideas help actors to interpret their interests and perceive material realities, and second, that ideas as the components of economic theories and of the prevailing ideological context limit the scope of property reform. In addition to exploring the role of ideas as intermediaries and as constraints, I take a neo-institutionalist approach in that I also consider the generative power of ideas. I argue that ideas, as ideological goals, motivate actors to pursue certain ends. In other words, I also examine ideas as interests--or in Weberian terms, ideal interests --which, like material interests, drive the reformulation of property rights