Bad Gut Flora Can Undermine Our Natural Liver Detox

In Africa, even though cancer of the colon is a major cause of cancer related deaths around the world, African citizens are much less likely to get colon cancer. Initial medical thinking was that the traditional African diet, mostly whole foods such as fresh vegetables and fruits along with a lot of fiber, was the reason. But modern Africans, many of whom have shifted their diets away from the traditional African model, are still significantly less likely to develop colon cancer.

Research into the matter has revealed some differences in the colon between Africans and others around the world. When animal matters is consumed, some of it isn’t digested or moved out of the colon before it begins to putrefy. When this happens, enzyme activity will start to process the leftover protein, and this creates a number of gasses that linger in the colon. The bacteria in the colon are affected by the presence or absence of this gas.

Some peoples who have a tradition of meat eating have seen their internal bacteria shift over time to be more adapted to dealing with these conditions. Africans have not seen similar adaptations, which some researchers suspect is integral to their greater resistance to colon cancers.