Texas A&M’s Dr. Robert Chapkin lends his voice to the plant-based movement.
Over the past decade, many researchers studying anti-cancer mechanisms have focused on the intersection of diet and chronic inflammatory diseases, cancer included. The bottom line is becoming clear: Continue reading
Weill Cornell’s Dr. Andrew Dannenberg is concerned about us postmenopausal women.
Postmenopausal?
Normal BMI?
Too much friggin’ trunk fat? Continue reading
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
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
Boston College biology professor Dr. Thomas Seyfried
May 2018 update: The answer to my question at the end of this post is “Yes it seems that you can get into ketosis on a plant-based diet.” Check out Miriam Kalamian and her “Keto for Cancer” book here. Long overnight fasts seem to be a good way to kickstart the process. Lupper, anyone?
For more on the metabolic approach to managing cancer, start with this very short summary of the New York Times’ recent piece. Talk with your oncologist and share Seyfried’s most recent article . Ask your oncologist to contact Seyfried at thomas.seyfried@bc.edu.
Dear Senator,
Meet the Moses of the metabolic movement, Dr. Thomas Seyfried.
For an overview of cancer as a metabolic disease, start here.
Cancer cells thrive on certain fuels–including glucose and glutamine, two key elements that you must inhibit in your anti-cancer diet. We’ve talked ad nauseum about glucose. But what about glutamine, an amino acid, a building block of protein? Continue reading
Is it my imagination or has Pillsbury’s Dough Boy shed a bit of belly fat?
Wonder what he’s been eating for lupper? Continue reading
2018 update: For an update on Dr. Thomas Seyfried’s suggestions for treating cancer as a metabolic disease, read his article here or my piece summarizing that article.
Talk with your oncologist about using this approach and ask your oncologist to reach out to Dr. Seyfried at thomas.seyfried@bc.edu.
This week’s New York Times magazine features a story on a theme familiar to all of you readers of this anti-cancer blog : the metabolic approach to starving, or feeding, disease. It singles out insulin and a related hormone, Insulin Growth Factor-1, which we’ve talked about often. And if glucose, glutamine and certain fatty acids drive cancer growth, as the metabolic scientists quoted in the article suggest, then what could be more important than phytonutrients that keep cancer cells from utilizing those fuels? That’s another theme we’ve been addressing. Remember singing the praises of dill? Continue reading
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?
Read the backstory first to enhance tonight’s exchanges with loved ones. Continue reading
Note: 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
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
When it comes to anti-cancer strategies, does diet really matter? To what degree? Continue reading
Still 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
What’s wrong with buying ketchup for your anti-cancer diet?
October 2015 update: Scientists are continuing to identify various food sources of fermentable fiber, including sources of “pre-biotic” fermentable fiber–the kind that provides the healthy bacteria for your gut to ferment. I’ll be updating this list as new studies come out. If you haven’t read through it in a while, you might want to do so.
Just when you thought you could tell the differences among various kinds of fiber, scientists start dishing out a brand new term for our anti-cancer diets: fermentable fiber. Continue reading
The View from Here…Periodical Rants
I once heard a geneticist claim that the changes to genes induced by smoking have been traced forward for three generations. Continue reading
Here’s your 2014 New Year’s bounty: a heads up on what I’m betting will become one of the hottest topics in anti-cancer research– foods and dietary components that can alter cancer stem cells. Continue reading
Ready for some anti-cancer nonsense? This weekend, the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation is sponsoring– get this– the Montreal Cake Show! Last time I checked the anti-cancer diet books, cake was definitely off the menu.
In fact, the esteemed World Cancer Research Fund/ American Institute of Cancer Research panel of scientists just issued this proclamation: Continue reading
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
Every so often in this anti-cancer blog, the science propels us to deviate from our nutrition and cancer focus and report to you on compelling research.
Remember secondhand smoke—the kind you get from nearby smokers? Now it turns out that thirdhand smoke, which clings to surfaces long after the source has departed, is also deadly—maybe even more so. Continue reading
Note: Since this article first appeared in 2013, research has revealed that the amino acid methionine may fuel cancer. Uniquely among amino acids, it causes cells to produce free radicals of oxygen as they burn it for energy. Researcher Dr. Paul Cavuoto suggests that people with cancer should limit methionine to 1 gram a day max. That means restricing animal foods, even those with high omega 3 content. One 3 oz portion of cooked salmon has almost 700 mg–comparable to poultry and meat. Brazil nuts are also high in methionine. For more on the methionine story, read this piece, written in early 2016.
“One of the most significant medical discoveries of the 21st century is that inflammation is the common thread connecting chronic diseases,” writes Dr. Mark Hyman, author of several books on health and wellness. The conditions he’s talking about include diabetes, heart disease, obesity and even cancer, all driven by inflammatory foods in your diet. But the good news is Continue reading
courtesy of http://www.peggyannturner.ca
Today is World Ovarian Cancer Day, and I have one word for you: flavonoids. These compounds give plants their color, and many appear to be anti-cancerous. Continue reading
Experts have been warning us for a long while. Now there’s another study that’s even more scary: Continue reading
Want to sneak a few satisfying starches into your anti-cancer diet– say some hot, mushy sweet potatoes ?
Here’s how:
Can you name 10 foods that help lower your blood sugar and thus belong in your anti-cancer diet? Continue reading
Could coconut fat help turn the tide in the anti-cancer battle?
Update: Ketogenic diets may not offer the solution that scientists hoped for, but looking at how cancer cells burn fuel for energy is for sure generating insight into how cancer grows and spread. Since this article was published, some scientists have found that cancers can switch to feeding on ketones, which are generated by fat. They’ve also added some fatty acids to the list of nutrients that cancer cells may feed on. Palmitic acid, which is in coconut, may feed cancer, especially in people with certain genetic profiles. The good news is that scientists have also identified phytonutrients that keep cancer cells from using fatty acids as fuels. Among them, luteolin–present in radicchio, thyme, sage, parsley, celery flakes and seeds–is key.
Is the war on cancer now witnessing its own D-Day, a turning point in the anti-cancer fight that will change the world for good?
With the recent settlement of a major lawsuit among scientists over who owns the rights to new revolutionary approaches to managing cancer, all the experts in the field are presumably now free to talk openly—and what they’re talking about is a radical new view of the disease.
Now that you’re eliminating mammary secretions on your anti-cancer diet, how do you decide which alternative to buy? It took a spreadsheet to figure out the answer. Continue reading
Yearning to know the best ways of preserving garlic’s anti-cancer properties? Continue reading
Hint: For an anti-cancer diet, one of these tops your choice of grains:
a/ steel cut oats b/ oat flakes c/ oat bran. Which one?
Gills down, this anti-cancer recipe wins the tastiest meal of the summer— Continue reading
We know that flaxseed appears to be an anti-cancer food for women and it may just do wonders for our sex drive, but what about for our men: Does it fight prostate cancer, too? Continue reading
Know anyone who has breast cancer? Doing your best to avoid it? Then consider this: Studies are showing that flaxseed can protect against breast cancer and prolong survival in women who have it. Continue reading
Yikes. I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but you might want to reconsider Grandma’s precious recipe. Roasted chicken, it turns out, is more pro- than anti-cancerous. Here are two reasons why: Continue reading
Hey, guys. It might be a bit difficult at first to wrap your new anti-cancer brain around this one, but you’ll get used to it: Continue reading
Winter 2014 Update: Dr. Kristine Monroe’s most recent study (discussed briefly in the post below), which looks at the effects of grapefruit and its juice on healthy postmenopausal women, has just been published. She found that the whole fruit led to an increase in “the major form of circulating estrogen in postmenopausal women,” that grapefruit juices had no effect on that form of estrogen, but that they did lower another very potent form of estrogen.
“The take-away message from this pilot study is that the process of hormone metabolism and absorption is complicated,” Monroe said, and more research is clearly needed.
The few studies on grapefruit—and whether it has an anti-cancer benefits or promotes cancer—are definitely at odds.
It’s clear that grapefruit juice contains natural substances that can inhibit an enzyme system (called CYP3A4) responsible for metabolizing certain meds. The result: an increase of medication circulating in the blood, with potentially toxic side effects.
But can grapefruit also increase your estrogen? Continue reading
When you were a kid and feeling queasy, did your mom indulge you with ginger ale? Not a bad hunch, but in many societies, there’s a much more indigenous way of spelling relief: Make ginger tea.
As you know from the post on inflammation, ginger is the great equalizer. It quells inflammation and soothes heartburn, upset stomach and nausea. What’s the key to preparing it? Continue reading
Moo shoo veggies, wrapped in lettuce instead of carbs.
Resolved to cut carbs? Good idea. Carbs are linked to high blood sugar, which in turn is linked to diabetes, heart disease, fat and even cancer.
Here are some creative substitutes:
Ginger root seems to help smoulder inflammation associated with cancer.
Inflammation “contributes to tumor proliferation, angiogenesis, metastasis and resistance to hormonal and chemotherapy.”—cancer researchers, 2009
Cherries from Chili spotted in Canada in January. Worth breaking the “eat local” guidelines?
Next time you need a nibble on something sweetish, grab a handful of fresh tart cherries. They could help control your estrogen levels.
Want advice about complementary approaches?
September 2018 update Add to the list the following naturopaths who take a metabolic approach to cancer:
You or someone you know facing a cancer diagnosis? Need help getting through treatments? Want to know which supplements might be beneficial or harmful? I’ve researched this thoroughly for my own well-being and guarantee that these resources are tops. One’s an M.D; one’s an N.D., a naturopath; the other, a PhD in nutrition. They all believe in working with conventional medicine as well. Continue reading
Eat and Beat Cancer 