#AICR19 Takeaway: Change Your Metabolism

Dr. Edward Giovannucci

Just a little weight loss can go a long way in improving metabolic health, says Harvard’s Dr. Ed Giovannucci.

The evidence is clear, says the American Institute of Cancer Research (AICR), the team of scientists who’ve been studying nutrition’s role in cancer for more than three decades.   

Excess body fat, particularly the kind that accumulates around the belly, increases the risk of at least a dozen cancers  pancreatic, colorectal, advanced prostate and breast cancer in us older women.  If you already have cancer, it can worsen the prognosis.

So what can you do about it?   Continue reading

Your Plantastic Kitchen®: How to Tame Your Naughty Testosterone

Anti-cancer dietary advice

Got milk? Got prostate cancer?

Psst, men–and all of you who care about men, growing boys or your own hormonal balance.  How’s your DHT? That’s the powerful male hormone driving adolescent acne, then early hair loss, then later in life, Continue reading

Anti-Cancer Onions: Plantastic Kitchen®’s Peeling Tips

IMG_1255“Again with the onions,”  you’re probably screaming.    Continue reading

Your Anti-Cancer Mother’s Day Gift: Myricetin

walnuts public domainMyricetin may not yet grace your doctor’s anti-cancer tool kit, but put it on your prescription pad. Among all the phytonutrients, it’s what I call “plantastic”– blessed with a chemical structure that works some anti-cancer wonder.  

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Anti-Cancer Strategies: How to Stock Your Plantastic Kitchen®

anti-cancer dillToday, on World Cancer Day, go out and buy some cancer-fighting plants. Here are some musts for your anti-cancer kitchen: Continue reading

Anti-Cancer Diets: Why I’m Ditching Brazil Nuts

anti-cancer diets and Brazil nutsAs if Brazil didn’t have enough to worry about, now comes a new study that exposes the shady side of selenium. The selenium in Brazil nuts, it turns out, is not the kind associated with anti-cancer qualities.  Continue reading

Anti-Cancer Strategies: Do Your Buttons

anti-cancer mushrooms and dill How can such a common mushroom harbor so many anti-cancer qualities? 

Credit its lectins, for starters–

 

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Part 3: What’s On and Off Your Anti-Cancer Platter? Flavonoids & The Mighty Italian Triumverate

colorful plants for an anti-cancer dietNow that you’re no longer a “Proteinaholic,” how do you go about selecting the most nutritious plants among all those shades of red, purple and green? 

My first vote goes to “The Mighty Italian Triumvirate,” a combo of   Continue reading

Part 2: What’s on and Off your Anti-Cancer Platter? Legumes for Long Life!

anti-cancer beans

How are legumes like sperm? They contain the same anti-cancer and anti-aging elixir.

July 2016 update: A new study in mice and 19 men by longevity researcher Luigi Fontana found that restricting daily protein to 7 to 9 percent of calories improved their metabolic health.  

Legumes–beans, peas and lentils — are the #1 key to longevity, says Dan Buettner, the bestselling author who’s been studying the world’s Blue Zones, those pockets of the world  (Mediterranean, Japan, California, Costa Rica) where people eating plant-based diets with legumes as their main source of protein are outliving us all. 

How might legumes fuel longevity? Could some be more “nutritarian” than others? How much protein should you be eating anyway? And must it be all plants all the time? Continue reading

2016: What’s on and off your Anti-Cancer Platter?

anti-cancer dietary strategies

Chicken’s off the platter if your New Year’s resolutions include restricting methionine–a promising new strategy to fight cancer and forestall aging.

What’s the latest advice that scientists are dishing out for your anti-cancer diet?

  • off the platter: suspect proteins
  • on the platter: plant proteins, but which ones and how much?
  • on the platter: flavonoids

Read the backstory first to enhance tonight’s exchanges with loved ones.  Continue reading

Anti-Cancer Foods: Watercress, Indoles and Why You AhR What You Eat

anti-cancer recipe for watercress saladNote:  Like radishes, watercress is one of the few crucifers that should be eaten raw. 

In this complex world of anti-cancer diets, some cruciferous vegetables may actually be more powerful than other fellow crucifers.

It all comes down to two words that begin with “I.”   Continue reading

Anti-Cancer Strategies: 3 Better Ways of Eating Berries

anti-cancer foods berries Berries are a must for your anti-cancer kitchen, but how you eat them is key. 

  • Raw or cooked?
  • Combined with what spices?
  • As desserts or snacks?

 

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Anti-Cancer Recipes: Holiday Guacamole with Emeralds and Rubies

anti-cancer recipes guacamoleHere’s a sparkling twist on guacamole to share with friends this holiday season and add to your growing repertoire of anti-cancer recipes.

The emeralds include avocado chunks and cilantro; the rubies, red onions and pomegranates. Continue reading

Anti-Cancer Awards: This Year’s Top Blog Post Stinks

Let’s jump straight to the top. The #1 most read post this year is–Anti-Cancer Recipes: Should you Cook Onions? So what’s the short answer? Continue reading

An Anti-Cancer Holiday Gift: Cranberries to Enrich your Poop

anti-cancer diet: cranberries

Ready to follow me on Twitter?

You don’t know what a healthy poop is until you’ve added some cranberries to your anti-cancer diet.  

And what’s a hearty poop got to do with cancer? 

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Breaking Anti-Cancer News: Ditch the Peanuts and Spread the Word

peanuts are not an anti-cancer food

Want more health news? Follow me on Twitter.

The first study to examine the effects of certain compounds in peanuts on the spread of cancer is about to be published–and the results show serious consequences for your anti-cancer diet, especially if you have metastatic cancer.
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Authors retract green coffee bean diet paper touted by Dr. Oz

Anti-Cancer News: Authors Retract Green Coffee Bean Paper

Retraction Watch

green coffee beanTwo authors of a 2012 paper sponsored by a company that made grand claims about green coffee bean abstract’s abilities to help people lose weight have retracted it. The study was cited by The Dr. Oz Show, and last month it cost the company a $3.5 million settlement with the Feds.

Here’s the notice for “Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, linear dose, crossover study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a green coffee bean extract in overweight subjects,” a paper originally published in Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity: Targets and Therapy:

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Anti-Cancer News: AICR says Soy and Fiber Important for Breast Cancer Survivors

anti-cancer tempeh wraps

Tempeh-Mushroom Wraps with Red Curry Sauce

Dear readers: Over the coming weeks, I will attempt to get reaction from various researchers on the soy findings. Stay tuned, talk with your doctor and do what feels right for you. Nobody needs anxiety

Soy?  Did they say soy should be included in an anti-cancer diet? Continue reading

Anti-Cancer Foods: Fennel Leaves

anti-cancer fennel leavesWhat anti-cancer benefits do fennel leaves and walnuts have in common?

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Anti-Cancer Foods: Are you Buying the Best Turmeric?

anti-cancer foods: turmericWhat kind of turmeric powder should we choose for our anti-cancer kitchens? Continue reading

Anti-Cancer Foods: Freeze your own Berries

anti-cancer foods: berriesWith summer on its way out, it’s time to freeze some of its most nutritious anti-cancer bounty. How to do it? Remember these 3 letters:  Continue reading

Anti-Cancer Strategies: Does Diet Really Matter?

anti-cancer dietsWhen it comes to anti-cancer strategies, does diet really matter? To what degree? Continue reading

Anti-Cancer Foods: Why I’ve Gone Nuts for Walnuts

anti-cancer foods: walnuts

2016 update: Myricetin is one of those magical flavonols that act as anti-oxidants in normal cells but selectively destroy cancer cells. In fact, among the flavonols, it may be tops at targeting cancer cells for destruction. 

Put walnuts and their next of kin on your anti-cancer shopping list. And who might that be? Continue reading

Anti-Cancer Recipes: Jittery Cook’s Jicama Sticks

jicamaStill struggling to find a simple jicama recipe for your anti-cancer diet? f you read the post on fermentable fiber, you know that Continue reading

Anti-Cancer Recipe Challenge: Let’s Make Ketchup

anti-cancer tomato pasteWhat’s wrong with buying ketchup for your anti-cancer diet? 

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Anti-Cancer Foods: Which Crucifers are Best Raw?

Radishes by Peggy Ann Turner editedIf you’ve been following this anti-cancer food blog, you know all about the crucifer dilemma and the recent research solving it:  Continue reading

Anti-Cancer Foods: How to Pick Unseasonal Berries

anti cancer berriesHow should you go about picking berries for your anti-cancer diet when you can’t get fresh ones from the ‘hood? Continue reading

Anti-Cancer Recipes: Indalian Onions

anti-cancer Indalian onionsThis anti-cancer recipe is like one of those research trials they stop early because the results are just so fantastic.  Continue reading

Anti-Cancer Diets and the Pitfalls of Plants: Copper and Zinc

anti-cancer strategies: the copper trap

Update: The same researchers who’ve found that onions and garlic can increase the bioavailability of zinc in plants have found that the following foods also help: beta-carotene rich vegetables (such as carrots). lime,  ginger, red and black pepper.

  

Yes, a plant-based diet is great for fighting cancer because plants contain all sorts of anti-cancer compounds, but heed the traps: Too much copper and too little zinc, often a result of plant-only diets, can fuel cancer—as well as make you tiredContinue reading

Anti-Cancer Recipes: Bombshells about Crucifers and Why Red Radishes Rule

anti-cancer recipe: broccoli dip with raw radishAt the American Institute of Cancer Research’s 23d annual conference of scientists throughout the world who study the anti-cancer effects of foods, a few plants took top honors: Continue reading

Anti-Cancer Recipes: Groundbreaking News about Crucifers

Cauliflower Chickpea Tomato CurryRemember all those cautions to eat crucifers raw in order to maximize their anti-cancer properties?  Detest raw cauliflower and broccoli? Then this new research will change your life:   Continue reading

Anti-Cancer Foods: A New Meaning for Mushroom Tea

Chihuly's glass garden of mushrooms and other delights 2Update: Since this article was first published, Australia’s senior research scientist, Dr. Peter Roupas, has stated publicly that it’s fine to eat button mushrooms raw. The research showing potential toxins in raw buttons was flawed, he says. That’s good news for readers who have cancer. Raw buttons (white, brown and portabello) contain a compound that binds to cancer cells and keeps them from growing, says the UK’s Dr. Yugang Lu; cooking on high heat inactivates that compound. If you do cook buttons, simmer on very low heat –not greater than 140F/60C–and consume the cooking water. The ABL seems to migrate there, Lu says. 

 

Looking for some synergy in your anti-cancer diet?  Then, take these two ingredients and—no, don’t make a tea with them. Continue reading

Anti-Cancer Foods: Radishes are more than they’re cracked up to be

What’s so great about this week’s anti-cancer food–plain, pungent radishes?  Let’s talk methylation, for starters.

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Anti-Cancer Foods: Microgreens, Baby Green Warriors

anti-cancer microgreensHave you added microgreens to your anti-cancer foods list?

They’re not cheap, but ounce for ounce, these tiny first leaves of edible seedlings boast lots more nutrients than their mature counterparts.  And the best part :

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Anti-Cancer Foods: A Yellow Tea to Enhance your Green

Chamomile flowers with special effectsWhat’s on your anti-cancer diet menu this morning? Oat bran and green tea? How about combining the green leaves with these yellow buds for some special effects? Continue reading

Anti-Cancer Recipes: Nancy’s Triple-Star Tabbouleh

Nancy's winning tabboulehBefore you head out to the market today, take a peek at this sample anti-cancer recipe from my upcoming book, “How to Create Your Plantastic Kitchen.” Try this simple, tasty, refreshing salad– all ingredients in perfect proportions (just like the recipe’s creator).

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Anti-Cancer Foods: An “Unusual Vegetable”

Kohlrabi and daikon slicesThis week’s New York Times Diner’s Journal called it an “unusual vegetable,” but they didn’t tell you about the anti-cancer value of this stranger. Continue reading

Anti-Cancer Recipes: What’s Wrong with Dr. Oz’s Beet Juice?

Dr. Oz’s raw beet juice may lower your blood pressure, but the recipes he’s flagging have no place in your anti-cancer kitchen.

For example?  Continue reading

Anti-Cancer News: Did you see the New York Times?

Green Beans with Brazil Nut- Garlic PasteDear followers,

Had to share this news with you: My latest anti-cancer article for Zester Daily made the New York Times! Continue reading