Full Report - Food, Nutrition, and the Prevention of Cancer

6
Egypt
In 2004 Egypt had a population of just over
74 million. Nearly the whole population
lives within the Nile Valley and the Nile
Delta, less than 4 per cent of the country’s
Non-communicable causes of death Egypt
Per cent of deaths
2
7
24
9
58
Data from World Health Organization 46
of any type seems to have been uncommon among gatherer–hunter
peoples, if only because their average life
expectancy was low. In modern gatherer–hunter societies,
the incidence of cancer rises after contact with industrialised
and urbanised ways of life, which usually involve shifts in
patterns of diet and physical activity. 53 These points generally
also apply to pastoralist societies.
1.1.2 Peasant–agricultural
In recent millennia, and until very recently in history, almost
all human populations have been rural and mostly peasant–agricultural,
and the majority still are in most regions of
Asia, many regions of Africa, and some parts of Latin
America. Peasant–agricultural food systems involving the cultivation
of wheat may have first developed around 9000
years ago in the ‘Fertile Crescent’ of the Middle East, including
the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (within
modern Iraq). These systems also developed
independently in Asia, with rice as the staple food, and in
the Americas, with corn (maize) as the staple. 54 The key factor
in these systems is land settlement, itself determined by
the cultivation and breeding of crops and also animals, birds,
and fish for human consumption and use. 55 In and around
Egypt, people began to make bread from wheat about 6000
years ago. 56
Typically, diets derived from these systems are plant-based:
they are high or very high in cereals (grains), complemented
with animal sources of protein. These diets are therefore
high in starchy foods and usually in dietary fibre (unless the
total area. Egypt has a lower-middle-income
economy, with a gross domestic product of
4274 international dollars per person (figure
1.3). Life expectancy at birth is 66 years for
Cardiovascular disease
Cancer
Respiratory disease
Diabetes
Other
P ART I • BACKGROUND
men and 70 for women (figure 1.1). 46
Chronic diseases account for 83.6 per
cent of deaths, while infectious diseases,
maternal, perinatal, and nutritional condi-
Age-standardised rates of common cancers Egypt
Age-standardised rate per 100 000
40
30
20
10
0
Bladder
Lung
Men Women
Liver
Data from International Agency for Research on Cancer 20
cereals are refined). They include varying amounts of foods
of animal origin, and of vegetables and fruits, depending on
relative food security. Surplus food is stored for consumption
in winter and during hard times, and methods of food
preparation also include fermentation, used for foods as well
as for the production of alcoholic drinks (see chapters 4.8
and 4.9).
The dominant indigenous cereal crop varies in different
parts of the world: wheat is grown in the Middle East; barley,
rye, and oats in colder, northern climates; millet and rice
in Asia; maize (corn) in the Americas; and sorghum and teff
in Africa. Indigenous staple crops also include roots and
tubers such as cassava (manioc), yams, potatoes, and also
plantains. Pulses (legumes) are also farmed to ensure agricultural
and nutritional balance; and other crops such as
vegetables and fruits are also cultivated. Birds and animals
are domesticated and bred for food, and fish and seafood
contribute to the diets of communities living beside water. 57
As with gatherer–hunters, the diets of peasant–agricultural
societies may be diverse and high in micronutrients.
Again, when food supplies are chronically insecure, or at
times of acute food shortage (including times of war), diets
are liable to become monotonous and deficient in various
nutrients, as well as in energy.
Peasant–agricultural societies are necessarily physically
active, although not constantly so: the main times of intensive
physical work include building field systems, sowing,
harvesting, and storing. The level of energy balance and of
physical activity varies greatly, depending in part on how dif-
Breast
Cervix
Bladder