Anticancer Diet by David Servan-Schreiber
By David Servan-Schreiber, MD, PhD,
Author of Anticancer: A New Way of Life
Diet is one of the major risk factors for cancer in Western societies. But it’s not just about what we eat too much of. It’s also about the foods we should learn to add to our table every day.
In his $40M laboratory at the University of Montreal, Dr. Richard Beliveau used to test new drugs that may help treat cancer. One day, tugged by children with leukemia who stopped him in the corridor of the hospital to ask if he had something new for them to use, he started experimenting with simple food extracts. Beliveau discovered that many simple food extracts had anticancer properties as powerful as many of the drugs he had been testing for the past 30 years.
Lenny, one of his friends, learned that he had pancreatic cancer. His wife begged Beliveau to help her design an anticancer diet. She fed Lenny, every day, three times a day, with foods that all had been tested for their anticancer properties. Lenny lived five years beyond his prognosis.
Today, the MD Anderson Cancer Center, the largest cancer research institution in the world, is also exploring this avenue. Long used in Ayurvedic medicine in India, the common spice turmeric (one of the main spices in curry) has been found to contain the most potent natural antiinflammatory ever described — the molecule “curcumin.” Researchers at MD Anderson have shown that it inhibits cancer growth by not only reducing inflammation (necessary for invasion of neighboring tissues) but by inducing cancer cell death (“apoptosis”), slowing down the growth of new blood vessels necessary for tumor expansion (“angiogenesis”), and increasing the efficacy of chemotherapy. This research was recently reviewed in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (2008).
Researchers at the Karolinska Institute (which awards the Nobel Prize) in Sweden have also shown that the polyphenols of green tea inhibit the progression of cancer. It can increase, too, the efficacy of radiotherapy. Women in Japan who drink more than three cups of green tea per day reduce their risk of breast cancer relapse. Men reduce their chance of seeing prostate cancer advance to a dangerous stage.
Eating at least five fruits and vegetables per day contributes greatly to the reduction of cancer risk.
The World Cancer Research Fund confirmed in its October 2007 report that 40 percent of cancers could be avoided with a more adequate diet and a bit more physical activity. And that these same lifestyle choices should be an integral part of any treatment of cancer. It stated as a goal no more than 12 ounces of red meat per week. The current American diet is close to 11 ounces per day.
The single most important feature in an anticancer diet is to reverse the proportions of a typical American meal: Make the core of your plate vegetables (and fruits), and use meat only to enhance flavor. Legumes (peas, beans, lentils, etc.) and soy (tofu, tempeh, miso, edamame etc.) offer the same proteins as meat but combined with cancer-fighting phytochemicals.
It’s also important to replace desserts (refined sugar) with fruits as often as possible. Berries, for example, contain anthocyanidins that directly help kill cancer cells and reduce the growth of abnormal blood vessels. Tangerines and their special flavonoids also act against cancer cells. All brightly colored fruits contain flavonoids that contribute to slowing down cancer growth. Agave syrup (which does not raise blood sugar or insulin) is a wonderful way to replace sugar for those who can’t do without the sweet taste.
All omega-6 oils (soybean, corn, sunflower) should be reduced or eliminated and replaced with olive oil, canola oil, or flaxseed oil. Omega-3 butter or margarine is also acceptable.
Animal products (meat, dairy, eggs) should be grass-fed or labeled “omega-3 rich,” and preferably organic so as to avoid growth hormone (that can stimulate cancer cell growth too).
Organic vegetables and fruits are preferable to nonorganic, but, as Dr. Beliveau likes to point out, “it’s better to eat broccoli with a few residues of pesticides on it than to not eat broccoli.”
And benefits from an anticancer diet are immediate. Within months, we can see our blood sugar go down, our waist thinning, our blood pressure improve, and we feel more energetic and less afflicted by little pains of life we had started to take for granted such as heartburn and joint pains… It’s not just about cancer. It’s about nourishing life in us.
Copyright 2008 David Servan-Schreiber, MD, PhD
Which Diet Works Best?
Raw food? Weight Watchers? South Beach? Eating real food (whole grains, vegetables, lean protein) at regular intervals? If diet indecision has you still eating doughnuts for breakfast, non-whole-wheat pizza for lunch and vowing to pick a program "next week," then you need to know this: It doesn’t matter which diet you choose, as long as you enjoy it as much as your favorite iPod tune. When it comes to reaching your weight goals, it is your ability to persist and enjoy the journey that matters.
So take stock of your eating preferences and lifestyle when you choose a diet. Your ability to stay with it long term depends in part on whether it fits easily into your lifestyle and doesn’t leave you feeling deprived. So if your job requires four-night-a-week client dinners, then ultra-low-fat options might be hard to manage. But it’s not hard to find a diet in which you add healthy omega-3 fats, such as salmon or mahi mahi or halibut, to your life. If you don’t know how to turn on an oven, choose something that lets you rely on prepared foods. Also consider whether you’ll feel deprived by the elimination of a food group if you choose a diet that requires that (although we don’t recommend it, unless you consider Nilla Wafers and french fries to be food groups).
So don’t let the endless weight-loss options give you diet paralysis. Pick a program with a combination of balanced, nutritious eating habits and regular exercise (of course, we’re partial to the YOU Diet! That’s our easy and tasty version of Mediterranean remade for American and Canadian tastes), and you’ll triumph in the game of healthy waist size for life.
TO SUBMIT QUESTIONSTO Mike Roizen and Mehmet Oz — the YOU DOCS — visit RealAge.com, the docs’ online home. The doctors are authors of "YOU: The Owner’s Manual" and "YOU: On a Diet."
10 Ways to Eliminate Sugar In Your Diet
How much sugar you eat every day? Do you know which foods turn to sugar in your digestive system? The main reason for diabetes setting in after age 40 is a direct result of a lifetime of bad eating habits. Below is a list of the foods you should eliminate from your diet entirely. Eliminate these foods and you will lose weight, gain strength and stamina, and feel like a kid again!
White rice, bread from refined flour,beets, carrots, refined sugar, corn syrup, molasses,honey, sugared colas, corn, and beer.
10 Steps To Eliminate Sugar from Your Diet
1. Admit you eat sugar in tremendous portions every day!
2. Believe that you can eliminate refined sugar from your diet!
3. Ask your doctor or health care provider if eliminating refined sugar from your diet will be beneficial for you.
4. Check with relatives, friends & family members to see if they eat foods that are high in sugar. Discuss your past diets of high sugar items. Tell them your plan for eliminating certain high sugar foods from your diet. Ask them to tell you about their daily sugar intake.
5. Discuss your plans to eliminate certain high sugar foods from your diet with your doctor or health care provider.
6. Be ready to change your lifestyle and eating habits. You cannot expect different results by doing the same things over and over!
7. Ask your doctor, healthcare provider, friends and family members how you can change your previous bad habits & replace them with new ones.
8. List items that need to be thrown out and replaced in your refrigerator and cabinets. Use Stevia, a natural sweetener, to replace refined sugar. Read all labels at the grocery store for sugar content. Hint: try all fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and organic dairy products and organic meats. Add supplements like Multi Vitamins, Vitamin E, B complex, Vitamin C to your diet.
9. Complete a full day without eating any refined sugar. Have another friend try this new diet with you for support & encouragement.
10. Continue to change your eating habits little by little. It will take awhile before your habits become established. Be patient. If you eat a dessert item, forgive yourself. Try to do better each day. Strive for progress, not perfection.
After you eliminate most refined sugar from your diet, have your doctor take your blood tests with your new diet in mind. You will see an improvement of 40 to 60 precent in your test results! Pass this information on to everyone you know! You have my permission to reprint, reproduce, and forward to your friends and relatives.
Forbes: How To Choose A Diet That Works
Americans are giving up on diets.
While weight-loss programs and products are still an estimated $58 billion industry, the number of people dieting is dropping, according to market-research firm NPD Group. Among a group of 5,000 consumers, in 1990 39% of the women and 29% of the men claimed to be on a diet; today, the numbers are 26% and 16%, respectively.
Instead, these people appear more interested in eating whole grains, fiber and omega-3 fatty acids than following the latest diet craze. That may be a good thing, but new research has found that some diets are more effective than was previously realized. Important–perhaps as much as what diet you choose–is how you choose a program.
The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine this summer, followed more than 300 moderately obese Israelis for two years, assigning them to one of three diets: a low-fat, calorie-restricted diet; a Mediterranean diet high in fiber; and a low-carb diet.
Although we’ve been conditioned to think that low-fat diets are the best way to lose weight, the results didn’t bear that out. On average, those on the low-fat diet only lost 6.5 pounds, compared with 10 pounds on the Mediterranean diet and 10.3 pounds on the low-carb diet.
While the diets proved equal at helping inflammatory and liver function biomarkers, other results varied greatly. The low-carb diet increased levels of good cholesterol and cut levels of atherosclerosis-causing triglycerides the most. The low-fat diet increased fasting glucose, high levels of which are a sign of diabetes, while the Mediterranean diet caused a decrease.
"The importance of this study," says Iris Shai, the study’s leader and a researcher at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, "is that there is no one solution for everybody."
Sticking With the Program
In fact, experts say a wide variety of diets can work–if only people can choose programs that are sustainable for them and find ways to stick it out.
People commonly derail their diets from the get-go, says Heidi Skolnik, a certified nutritionist and health-fitness instructor at the Hospital for Special Surgery, by having unrealistic expectations about how much weight they’ll lose–and how quickly they’ll do so. They also want the process to be easy. When that doesn’t happen, they give up and move on to the next thing, a process that isn’t good for the body or mind.
"Yo-yo dieting messes with your head," Skolnik says. "It’s very demoralizing. Each new time, you’re more reluctant to get your hopes up, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."
Skolnik recommends figuring out your ideal body, taking into account your height and frame, and then thinking about what’s going to be realistic for you to achieve and maintain.
You’ve also got to consider your food preferences, goals and diet histories and consult your doctor before starting anything, says Shai. For instance, if a diet calls for you to cut back on your carbs drastically and you love bread and pasta, the likelihood of your success is low. As great as a diet may be, if you can’t think about it as a long-term strategy, it’s probably not worth trying. Likewise, if you want to lower your cholesterol levels or control your diabetes, you’ll want to factor that into your decision. And if you’ve tried diets in the past and failed to see results–who hasn’t?–examine what went wrong.
What kind of diet has worked for you? Weigh in. Add your thoughts in the Reader Comments section below.
Your personality plays a role, too, Skolnik says. Do you respond better in situations that are structured or more flexible? Do you perform better when you’re backed by a support network or when you’re on your own? Honestly answering these questions can help you figure out if you would be better off buying a diet book or participating in a weight-loss program that offers regular meetings.
Before choosing a diet you should also look for a few key factors, says Stacey Snelling, a registered dietitian and an associate professor at American University in the health and fitness department. Those include scientific evidence backing up the diet’s effectiveness and some component of physical activity to help you maintain your weight loss down the road. On the other hand, diets that recommend the use of supplements are worth questioning since they might be lacking in nutritional adequacy. Furthermore, it’s not clear whether pills provide the same health benefits as the foods from which they’re derived.
The Bottom Line
For those who are still dieting, or whose ears can’t help but perk up when news of the next diet fad hits, there is hope. It’s possible dieters can improve their odds of success, experts say, if they spend time upfront making sure they pick sound diets that match their goals and personalities.
"You should know which diet you can live with," Shai says, "not a dramatic diet for the short term, but for the long term."
Source: Forbes
Fact: Mother’s High-fat Diet Contributes To Obesity In Her Children
New research published online in The FASEB Journal suggests that pregnant women should think twice about high-fat foods. In a study from the University of Cincinnati and the Medical College of Georgia, scientists found that female mice fed high fat diets were more likely to have oversized offspring (a risk factor for overweight and obesity) because fat causes the placenta to go into "overdrive" by providing too many nutrients to the fetus.
This information also suggests that the reverse may be true as well—high fat diets may help prevent undersized babies.
"Our model may one day lead to dietary recommendations for mothers who are entering pregnancy overweight or obese," said Helen N. Jones, Ph.D., first author of the study. "We hope this research will ultimately help reduce the number of babies suffering from birth injuries, decrease C-section rates, and lower the risk of babies becoming overweight or obese later in life."
To reach their conclusion, the researchers fed one group of mice a normal diet and another group a higher fat diet for eight weeks. Then the mice were mated. At the end of each mouse’s pregnancy the offspring were delivered by c-section and weighed along with their placentas. The scientists then took blood from the mothers and measured the ability of the placenta to transport nutrients to the babies.
"It’s no secret that big women tend to have big babies," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal, "but now we know that there’s more at play than genetics. Cutting back on fatty foods during pregnancy might decrease the chance of having a baby that becomes overweight in the future."
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one-third of adult men and women, and 16.3 percent of children and youth in the United States are obese. Obesity increases the risk of many diseases and health conditions, including: hypertension, osteoarthritis (breakdown of cartilage and its underlying bone in a joint), dyslipidemia (high total cholesterol, high levels of triglycerides), type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea and respiratory problems, and some cancers.
Adapted from materials provided by Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Source: sciencedaily.com
