--John Bailar, M.D., Ph.D., former editor-in-chief of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute
I had difficulty writing this chapter. Draft after draft seemed lifeless. I knew something was wrong, but what?
Then it came to me: My father, with whom I had been very close, died of lung cancer in 1977. The profound sense of loss still lingers--so much so that writing about the disease that had torn my family apart was next to impossible.
I miss my dad terribly. Had it not been for the scourge of cancer, we would have had several more years together. I know he would agree that if the information presented here helps even one person avoid cancer, the effort will have been worthwhile. I dedicate this chapter to him.
In the pages that follow, you'll find out what causes cancer and why. Along the way, you'll learn what you need to do to protect yourself against this insidious disease.
Some of what you're about to read may seem boring or discouraging. But I want you to have all of the facts. Becoming informed is your best weapon in the war against cancer--a war that you have the power to win.
You are not alone if you feel that, like Benjamin Franklin's proverbial death and taxes, cancer is inescapable. That's just not true.
When the topic turns to cancer, many a frustrated soul has said, "Hey, everything causes cancer--the water we drink, the food we eat, the air we breathe. Why should I give up all my favorite stuff when the so-called experts can't even agree on what causes cancer and what doesn't?"
I used to bristle when I heard people say such things. I told myself that they were misinformed or trying to rationalize their own self-destructive behaviors (as in "Everything causes cancer, so I may as well order the bacon cheeseburger"). I'd indulge in long-winded tirades about how it just isn't so, then trundle out my litanies about what actually does and doesn't cause cancer. (Now I can just hand folks a copy of this book.)
Another argument that I often hear goes something like this: "I've read about cancer genes, and I have them. My mother, father, and grandfather all died of cancer. So if I'm genetically programmed to get cancer anyway, why should I make sacrifices and change my lifestyle?"
These are reasonable questions. True, we can't change our genetic makeup. But by the same token, heredity isn't everything. Lifestyle choices determine whether cancer genes actually express themselves. So even if cancer does "run in the family," prevention works. You control the outcome. Indeed, a fatalistic attitude could prove fatal if it persuades you to throw caution to the wind.
Trust me when I say that almost all cancers are preventable. This is why it's so important to know what causes the disease and what prevents it.
The United States is in the midst of a cancer epidemic. One in every three Americans will develop the disease. An astounding 1.2 million cancer cases are diagnosed every year in this country--and that number is going up, not down. Of these, 6 in 10 people will die within five years. One in every four deaths--about 500,000 annually--is attributable to cancer, and the rate is rising.
Now for the good news: The National Cancer Institute estimates that 80 percent of all cancer cases can be prevented. The same percentage of cases are linked to lifestyle and/or environmental factors, according to Margaret Heckler, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. The most significant causes of cancer are the ones that you can control or influence. You can voluntarily lower your cancer risk from 35 percent to 5 percent through lifestyle changes alone.
In l980, the National Cancer Institute commissioned the National Research Council to investigate the relationship between diet and cancer. The list of panelists, all selected from the National Academy of Sciences, reads like a veritable who's who of nutrition. Their report, Diet, Nutrition, and Cancer, states: "The evidence reviewed by the committee suggests that cancers of most major sites are influenced by dietary patterns." In the years since that report was released, more research results have poured in, and the diet-cancer connection has grown even stronger.
Diet causes more cancers than any other single risk factor, including smoking. Take away cancers from smoking, and diet accounts for more than 50 percent of the remaining cancer cases. Remove the other known risk factors--excessive sun exposure, alcohol consumption, occupational exposure, environmental pollution, viral infection, medicine, and medical procedures--and diet accounts for at least 70 percent of the remaining cancer cases.
| Assessing Your Cancer Risk
Scientists have identified the following factors as potential causes of or contributors to cancer. Some you cannot control, but many you can. These are the keys to prevention. |
|
| Lifestyle Factors
Age Family history Lack of exercise Obesity Smoking Stress Health Factors Chronic viral infections Immunological disorders Parasites Dietary Factors Additives Aflatoxin (a mold-borne Alcohol Animal-derived foods Antioxidant deficiencies Caffeine Contaminated drinking water Essential fatty acid deficiencies Essential nutrient deficiencies |
Excessive fat
Excessive sugar fiber deficiencies Irradiated foods Pesticides Phytochemical deficiencies Processed foods Trans-fats Environmental Factors Air pollution Asbestos Electromagnetic fields Formaldehyde Household chemicals (such as Ionizing radiation Lead Pesticides Radon gas Smoking and secondhand smoke Ultraviolet radiation Water pollution X-rays |
By the year 2000, cancer will reign as the leading cause of death in the United States. For the vast sums of money devoted to cancer research over the past quarter-century, we've not seen commensurate improvements in cure rates. "The degree of improvement in death rates in general for the common cancers of adults is really pretty discouraging. It has not been for lack of effort," according to John Bailar, M.D., Ph.D., a researcher at the National Cancer Institute and former editor-in-chief of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
We've been losing the war against cancer because we've been fighting on the wrong battlefield. We need to move our front line to prevention. This requires public education.
Unfortunately, the medical research establishment and the government's funding agencies are more enamored with fancy new drugs and other high-tech therapeutic adventures than with teaching preventive lifestyles. For a variety of pernicious political and economic reasons, government-supported efforts have chosen to emphasize early detection and aggressive treatment rather than the true cure offered by prevention. Agribusiness doesn't want to stop placing fat-laden animal foods on the American table. Chemical manufacturers are loathe to lose their profits on pesticides and preservatives. Drug companies make a bundle on ever more potent chemotherapeutic weapons.
Government will not reject any industry's powerful, money-driven influence until an enlightened, fed-up populace sends clear messages that the jig is up. Until then, there will be no public education about preventive lifestyles. And even more time will be lost while cancer, a formidable foe, continues its advance.
Of course, when cancer does strike, early detection is absolutely critical. Superlative diagnostic techniques such as mammographies, Pap tests, prostate-specific antigen screening, sigmoidoscopy (for colon cancer), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are capable of identifying tumors long before they have a chance to grow and spread.
On the treatment side, drugs, radiation, and surgery--despite their great value--will never amount to more than too little, too late. Remember, fewer than half of newly diagnosed patients survive for five years.
Prevention is the ultimate solution to the puzzle of cancer. No chemotherapeutic regimen or screening program can save as many lives as some simple preemptive changes in diet and lifestyle.
Cancer is a group of diseases characterized by the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells. It results from massive immune collapse and is the ultimate degenerative disease. Left unchecked, it can kill you.
Cancer begins when a healthy cell--minding its own business, performing its assigned tasks--encounters one of those renegade molecules called free radicals. The free radical literally attacks the cell's DNA and damages it, initiating the cell's transformation into a neoplastic (tumor-forming) cell. The carcinogenic intruder literally reprograms the cell's DNA. Unless the DNA is promptly repaired, the cell will never again be the same.
Cancer cells break the rules that govern normal cells. For example, normal cells are programmed to die on cue by virtue of a process called apoptosis, which is necessary to make room for new cells. Cancer cells have the audacity to refuse to die. They become immortal, living as long as the host stays alive. And they become greedy, grabbing much more than their share of food, water, and oxygen.
Cancer cells ignore another natural dictum: the universal biological law of contact inhibition. This is nature's protection against encroachment. Normal cells stop dividing when they bump up against neighboring cells. Cancer cells have no more respect for this law than for any of the others. They just push neighboring cells aside and keep on growing.
Even so, cancer doesn't happen overnight. Cancer is a multistep process, consisting of first initiation, then promotion, then progression. The cumulative outcome of multiple exposures to carcinogens, the average cancer takes one to four decades to develop.
By the time a tumor has reached clinical detectability, it's about 75 percent of the way to being lethal. It has undergone at least 30 doublings, contains about a billion cells, weighs about one gram, and occupies a volume of about 1 cubic centimeter. If it hasn't already metastasized, the risk is high. Only 10 further doublings will produce a clearly lethal tumor of a trillion cells, one kilogram (2.2 pounds), and 1,000 cubic centimeters.
Cancer cells are continuously being created and (hopefully)
destroyed in your body. The combination of intense prolonged oxidative
stress--that is, too many free radicals and not enough
Testing can determine whether your free radicals are beating
up on your
The oxidative stress panel provides three measures of free
radical activity. The first is the level of hydroxyl radicals, one of the
nastiest of the free radicals. The second is the level of oxidized fats
(or serum lipid peroxides, scientifically speaking). Free radicals oxidize
fats, so the more oxidized fats, the more free radical activity. The third
is the level of
The antioxidant profile assesses levels of the major
protective
Your body's cancer safeguard systems protect you in two ways: They help prevent renegade cancer cells from forming in the first place, and they remove those that slip past the front-line defenses. In effect, your cancer safeguard systems are an obstacle course that your body places in the path of a wannabe cancer cell. These systems include antioxidant defenses, DNA repair enzymes, and immune surveillance. Let's take a brief look at each.
We've already discussed the antioxidant defense systems--the nutrients, enzymes, and immune cells that protect you against free radicals. Mutant (precancerous) cells are created when the cells' DNA is overwhelmed by intense oxidative stress. It isn't as though one exposure to fried chicken or pesticide residues causes cancer. Rather, it's the relentless pounding taken by your DNA day in and day out over long periods of time.
Keeping your defenses strong means consuming lots of
Even if DNA is damaged, it can be repaired. In chapter 3, I explained that Renewal depends on DNA repair enzymes, which restore health to DNA molecules that have been damaged by free radical attack. Each DNA molecule in every single one of your 100 trillion cells sustains this damage at a fantastic rate: about 10,000 free radical hits per day. Most, but not all, of these lesions are fixed by your DNA repair enzymes. If these enzymes have been damaged by excessive free radicals, however, they can't do their jobs effectively. Impaired repair enzymes can thus increase vulnerability to cancer.
If damaged DNA is repaired before the affected cell divides, the DNA passed on to the daughter cells is normal, and the healthy cell line continues. But if a cell containing damaged DNA replicates before the enzymes can repair the damage, the daughter cells carry forward the altered genetic code as a mutation, initiating a line of mutant cells.
On some level, your body's healing systems are acutely aware of what a disaster it would be to pass on a mutant gene. So you have special proteins that are actually programmed to stop cells with defective DNA from dividing. These molecular traffic cops temporarily arrest cell division by sending a message to a defective cell, telling it to suspend replication until the DNA is repaired (sort of like being told to stay home from work until you get well) or to self-destruct. In effect, these special protein messengers give the compromised cell a time-out so that the DNA repair enzymes can do their thing.
Above all else, cancer--regardless of location or type--is a disease in which the immune system falters under the weight of excess free radicals. For cancer to start and then continue growing, it must outmaneuver the many long arms of your immune defenses.
The immune system is both your first and last defense against cancer. As the principal cancer defender in your cells, it plays multiple roles. It tracks down, identifies, and destroys carcinogenic free radicals before they can alter DNA. It also protects the DNA's bodyguards, the DNA repair enzymes. And it protects its own cells from free radical attack. That's just what it must do before cancer cells appear.
Free radical scavenging and DNA repair are not perfect, so cancer cells are being formed more or less continuously. Your immune system is programmed to locate and destroy them, and it has a multiplicity of weapons for doing this. B lymphocytes manufacture tumor-specific antibodies, which attack and destroy cancer cells. Several types of T lymphocytes (natural killer cells, cytotoxic lymphocytes, and others) are programmed to kill tumor cells. Lymphocytes also manufacture anti-tumor chemicals called cytokines, including interferon, interleukin, and tumor necrosis factor.
Given the multilayered arsenal at your body's disposal, the fact that cancer happens at all is quite amazing. People with impaired immune responsiveness, regardless of cause, are more susceptible to cancer because their arsenals are depleted. Maintaining immune health is so crucial to cancer prevention and longevity that throughout this book I stress the importance of minimizing exposure to immune-suppressing factors such as a high-fat diet, pesticides and other toxic chemicals, air and water pollutants, radiation, synthetic hormones, antibiotics, and immunosuppressive drugs (prednisone is one). If you protect your immune system, it will protect you.
The term dysplasia applies to any precancerous growth that has outwitted and outmaneuvered all of the protective defense mechanisms described above and that has become large enough to actually detect. Dysplasia is a group of precancerous cells that can be seen by a pathologist in a biopsy but that have not invaded local tissues or metastasized to a distant location. At this stage of development, changing the internal environment (with diet and supplementation) can often give the immune system the boost it needs in order to reverse the condition.
The experience of one of my patients, Alice Dobson, illustrates this point perfectly. Alice, a family therapist, called me with the news that a routine Pap test administered by her gynecologist had revealed cervical dysplasia--often a prelude to cervical cancer. She asked me what she should do. I told her that many studies had shown that nutritional medicine could reverse a high percentage of cervical dysplasias. She agreed to give it a try.
I started her on moderate doses of
After four months on this program, Alice's follow-up Pap
test came back negative. With the immune system boost and the extra
Diet and cancer are linked in three fundamental ways. First, many foods and food products contain carcinogens. Some, like fats and aflatoxins (produced by a mold that grows on certain crops), are naturally there. Others, like hydrogenated oils, pesticides, and dyes, are added. Still others, like browning and burning, are created through cooking. The good news is that you can easily avoid these food-borne carcinogens. You need only know what they are and where to find them.
Second, certain foods are chock-full of cancer-fighting substances. Therefore, specific food choices, properly made, can help prevent cancer.
Third, cancer-protective nutrients are deficient in the standard American diet. But when taken as supplements, they reduce cancer risk.
This information leads to three powerful preventive options.
The rest of this chapter focuses on the first of these anti-cancer strategies. The other two are covered in chapter 13.
It is a tragic irony that the foods we find most attractive are the ones least likely to improve our health. This line of thinking, tempered with a dash of cynicism, raises the question: What kind of diet would a person choose if he were attempting to cause cancer? (As you read along, note the similarity between this diet and the standard American diet.)
This person--let's call him Norm--would prefer fried, burned, toasted, barbecued, and smoked foods such as steaks, ribs, hamburgers, pork, fried chicken, fried fish, sausage, bacon, fried potatoes, eggs, and toast. He'd indiscriminately devour other high-fat foods such as cheese, butter, salad dressings, and cooking oils. Rather than sticking with unprocessed whole grains, legumes, fresh vegetables, and fresh fruits, he'd steer clear of these vital foods as much as possible. They'd be relegated to supporting-role status, while fleshy main dishes, dairy products, and convenience foods would take center stage.
Norm's cancer-causing diet is processed, preserved, and doused with pesticides. It features conventionally grown foods rather than chemical-free organically grown foods. It is deficient in cancer-protective fiber. It includes hot dogs, sausage, cold cuts, and other nitrate-laden processed meats. To wash it all down, Norm swills copious amounts of alcohol, coffee, and sugary soft drinks.
Obviously, this killer diet is low in cancer-protective
nutrients--the vitamins, minerals,
For carcinogenic potential, nothing in your diet comes anywhere close to fat. As has been discussed at length in previous chapters, a high-fat diet dramatically increases cancer risk. This is not speculation: Animal studies and human population studies alike have established this truth beyond any question. In the medical and cancer research communities, "Fat causes cancer" is accepted as fact.
In animal studies, researchers have consistently found that a high-fat diet accelerates the frequency and growth rate of cancers. And in human studies, three of the four most common cancers--breast, colon, and prostate--are closely linked to high fat intakes. Even lung cancer, the fourth most common type, is more likely to occur in smokers who also have high fat intakes. Cancers of the uterus, ovaries, and pancreas are also on the list of those associated with a high-fat diet.
Fat causes cancer in a variety of insidious ways.
Fat breeds free radicals. Rancidification is just another word for oxidation, which is just another word for free radical attack. All fats, including those that your own body manufactures, eventually go rancid.
When fat molecules are oxidized, the resulting chain reactions produce cascades of free radicals. These free radicals can destroy any cell in your body by blasting a hole in its outer wall, or cell membrane. The cell's contents leak out, and it dies.
We can afford to lose a few cells here and there. The truly serious problems begin when free radicals bang into a cell's DNA molecules, mutating them so that they reproduce incorrectly. Or when free radicals damage immune cells, interfering with their cancer-protective powers. (I know that I've already explained all this, but I just want to remind you that excess dietary fats enhance the carcinogenic load.)
Trans-fats are especially aggressive free radicals that get a kick out of fracturing DNA and sabotaging the immune system's delicate cancer surveillance mechanisms, increasing the likelihood of tumor development. Trans-fats are fat molecules that have been altered by hydrogenation, processing, or high-heat cooking. They are present in vegetable shortenings, processed vegetable oils, and margarine.
Fat depletes antioxidant nutrients. The health of the immune system is exquisitely sensitive to diet and to the availability of nutrients. Improper diet weakens the immune system's ability to ward off cancer. Conversely, maintaining consistently high levels of antioxidant nutrients provides incredibly powerful cancer protection.
The antioxidant nutrient heroes that valiantly defend the
body are vitamins A, C, and E, the minerals
A high-fat diet not only uses up these protective nutrients
at an unusually rapid rate but also fails to replace them. Plus, the very
nutrients that we need to break down dietary fat--the
| Fats to Forget
In the fight against cancer, the smartest strategy of all is to reduce your fat intake. Dietary fat has been implicated in even more cases of cancer than smoking. To slim down your diet, steer clear of the following foods. Fried foods. Frying and fat are a toxic mix: Together they cook up a cascade of carcinogens. Eliminate all fried foods, from the common french fry to the exotic falafel. Meats. Like all animal-derived foods, meats are high in fat. Women who eat meat daily have 4 times the breast cancer rate of women who eat meat less than once a week. And men who consume meat or any other animal-derived food daily are 3.6 times more likely to develop fatal prostate cancer than men who consume these foods sparingly, if at all. Excise all meats from your diet, including bacon, chicken, duck, ham, hamburger, lamb, pork, processed lunchmeats, salami, sausage, steak, turkey, and veal. Dairy foods. They come from animals, so they're loaded with fat, pesticides, and other toxins. On the list of offenders are all types of butter, cheese, milk, and yogurt, including nonfat and low-fat varieties. Skip the butter substitutes, too. Margarine and other partially hydrogenated spreads contain large quantities of trans-fats, or "ugly fats." Eggs. They're not only high in saturated fat but also loaded with cholesterol. Cooking oils. Use the smallest amounts possible. For stove-top cooking, olive and soybean oils can tolerate higher heats best. For baking, olive, soybean, and walnut oils are good choices. Salad dressings. Standard dressings, even the "lite" varieties, are usually very high
in fat. Several tasty nonfat dressings are now available. Better yet, make
your own. Start with vinegar (I like balsamic or the flavored gourmet
kinds) or lemon juice, herbs, and spices. For extra flavor (and extra
anti-cancer Nuts and nut butters. A tablespoon of peanut butter contains 100 calories, 90 of which come from fat. A 2,000-calorie, 10 percent fat diet allows for only 200 calories from fat per day. So after just 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, you've just about reached your daily fat quota. Because of their fat content, nuts and nut butters should be consumed in very small amounts. Almond butter is preferable over peanut. If you use peanut butter at all, make sure that it's organic and certified aflatoxin-free. (Aflatoxin is a mold-borne carcinogen that's especially common in peanuts.) Pour the oil off the top when you open it. Snack foods. Nutritionally, they're junk--not only high in fat but also made with partially hydrogenated cottonseed, palm, or peanut oil. Because these oils are bursting with saturated fats and "ugly fats," they belong in the realm of the truly toxic. For snacks, choose from fresh fruits such as apples, grapes, oranges, and pears; applesauce; almonds and walnuts (just a few, though); popcorn (without any butter); fat-free corn chips; and rice crackers and other fat-free crackers. |
Fat elevates hormone levels. A high-fat diet contains high levels of xenoestrogens (that is, estrogens that are different from the ones the body makes) and induces production of estradiol and estrone, the pro-cancer types of estrogen. High levels of these hormones can trigger cancer in the hormonally sensitive tissues of the breasts and other reproductive organs (the uterus, ovaries, and prostate). Nonvegetarians also ingest the growth-stimulating hormones fed to cows and chickens. These substances confuse and disrupt the body's own hormone-producing equipment (the endocrine system), opening the door to cancer and other diseases.
Fat stimulates bile acid production. All fats, but especially saturated fats, increase bile acid production in the liver. Bile acids are released via the bile ducts into the intestinal tract, where they stimulate intestinal bacteria to produce cancer-causing chemicals. Fewer dietary fats means less bile acid, which in turn means a lower cancer risk.
Excess bile acids can also directly irritate the intestinal wall, eventually initiating tumor cell growth. A high-fiber diet protects against this by sopping up the bile acids and the carcinogens they generate, flushing them out before they cause damage.
Fat packs on pounds. Carrying excess body weight is carcinogenic. Why? The more fat molecules in the body, the more free radicals that are generated, and the greater the potential for cancer. These are persuasive reasons to minimize fat intake and to lose weight. And since excess calories from all sources can be transformed into and stored as fat, these are compelling reasons to reduce total calorie intake as well.
| Fat-Fighting Guidelines
Not all fats cause cancer. In fact, some can even help prevent it. Want to maximize these beneficial fats while minimizing the harmful fats? Here are six rules to live by. 1. Eliminate all foods of animal origin. 2. Avoid all foods that contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. 3. Cook fats and oils at the lowest possible temperature. Bake, boil, microwave, or steam foods--never fry. 4. Cut back on all vegetable fats and oils except those high
in 5. Take 2,000 to 10,000 milligrams of supplemental flaxseed oil, an omega-3 fatty acid, each day. 6. Take 250 to 500 milligrams of supplemental |
The American food supply is pervasively contaminated. Since the 1950s, the Food and Drug Administration and other government agencies have allowed the multibillion-dollar food industry to lace the food supply with hundreds of substances whose safety is questionable. The consequences of prolonged exposure to these chemicals, many of which are known carcinogens, is uncertain. But many experts now believe that long-term ingestion plays a major causative role in compromised immunity and cancer.
In a desperate attempt to protect itself from these toxins, your body stores them in its fatty tissues. This is tantamount to attempting to get rid of a poison by eating it. If this approach seems foolish, remember that toxins are fat-soluble rather than water-soluble, so they can't simply be dumped into the urine. This noxious brew doesn't just hang out harmlessly in fat cells, either: It disrupts local DNA, slowly causing changes that can ultimately lead to cancer.
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), and other pesticides stored in women's breast tissues have been linked to breast cancer. Researchers looked at the amounts of two carcinogens in 40 breast tissue samples--20 benign, 20 malignant. Their findings were crystal clear: The malignant samples contained twice as many PCBs and twice as much dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (a breakdown product of DDT) as the benign samples.
For carnivores, bioaccumulation--that is, the movement of pesticides and other fat-soluble toxins up the food chain--provides a carcinogenic double whammy. Here's how it works: Just as in humans, the bodies of cows and chickens stow pesticides (which are routinely sprayed on animal feed) in fatty tissues in an attempt to get rid of them. When you eat a burger or a drumstick, you get a dose of pesticide that has already gone through one concentration. Then your body stores the toxin, so it is doubly concentrated.
Additives create some serious problems for the cancer-conscious eater. Thousands of additives are used in our nation's food supply, most of which are risky for one reason or another, but only a sprinkling of them are listed on the labels. The only systematic way to avoid them is to eat fresh, whole (unprocessed) foods, preferably purchased in health food stores.
Here's a sampling of some of the most commonly encountered carcinogenic food additives.
The fungus Aspergillus flavus--which grows on a variety of crops--produces aflatoxin, one of the most powerful known carcinogens. Animal studies have shown aflatoxin to be carcinogenic at remarkably low levels.
When researchers fed rats aflatoxin-contaminated food at the incredibly minute concentration of 15 parts per billion (equivalent to 15 pennies in $10 million worth), every single rat developed cancer. By comparison, the "safe limit" of aflatoxin established by the Food and Drug Administration is 20 parts per billion.
Aflatoxin is the most potent liver carcinogen known. Studies conducted in Mozambique, where aflatoxin contamination and liver cancer are both rampant, strongly suggest a connection between the two. In China, Taiwan, and Thailand, studies have linked aflatoxin-contaminated food with liver cancer.
Aflatoxin-producing mold grows on many crops. It especially favors those that are improperly stored or have been weakened by drought or insects. Among the crops hardest hit are almonds, corn, peanuts, pecans, and pistachios. Many other crops--primarily grains and seeds--are affected, but usually at lower levels.
Here in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration and the food industry consider aflatoxin a significant but unavoidable risk. Monitoring is difficult, poorly controlled, and spotty at best.
To minimize personal aflatoxin exposure, I recommend the following:
Remember the wonderful odor of frying bacon wafting into your bedroom, enticing you to get up in the morning? Or the rich, smoky smell of a backyard barbecue, complete with steaks, ribs, and burgers?
Unfortunately, these foods are among the most toxic known. High-heat cooking (above 240šF) generates huge quantities of highly concentrated, DNA-ravaging carcinogens, while destroying essential nutrients and phytochemicals.
High heat applied to the fats in meats changes them into carcinogenic chemicals such as benzoapyrenes and other polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons. Those browned and blackened surface residues you see are pure concentrated carcinogens. The fattier the meat and the higher the heat, the more toxins formed. That we humans are enticed by the flavor and aroma of these carcinogens seems a perverse twist of nature indeed.
In a similar way, the
These various physiological insults won't kill you outright. But they do fracture DNA, stress the immune system, and accelerate aging.
Eating foods that have been burned is not a good idea for the same reasons that inhaling burned tobacco is not a good idea. Physiologically speaking, there is no real difference between smearing burned carcinogens onto the surface of your respiratory tract and smearing them onto the surface of your intestinal tract. Either will mutate local DNA before being absorbed into the bloodstream, distributed throughout the body, and finally passed by the excretory organs. In fact, regular consumption of fried and broiled foods can entail an intake of greater amounts of carcinogenic material than heavy cigarette smoking. Researchers have found the same kinds of highly carcinogenic substances in the urine of people who eat fried bacon and pork as in the urine of smokers.
Solving the life-shortening problems caused by high-heat cooking is simple enough.
Note: People who are
taking blood thinners should consult their doctors before taking
supplemental
Should you toss out your toaster? No. Just turn the temperature way down and remove your toast before it begins to turn brown.
Other foods have carcinogenic properties as well. You can significantly reduce your chances of developing cancer by steering clear of the following.
Alcoholic beverages. All alcoholic beverages, including wine, beer, and hard liquor, weaken the immune system. Ethanol, the stuff that gives booze its punch, is a potent carcinogen. It has been directly linked to cancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, breasts, stomach, pancreas, liver, colon, and rectum. Alcoholic beverages contain three other fairly nasty chemical carcinogens as well: acetaldehyde, nitrosamines, and urethanes.
Alcohol also irritates and inflames the lining of the digestive tract. This can lead to "leaky gut syndrome," in which large molecules of incompletely digested food seep through the weakened intestinal wall and directly into the bloodstream. The immune system identifies these food particles as foreign invaders and launches an attack on them.
The bottom line on booze: If you wish to live to a ripe old age, sip lightly. Or better yet, stay away altogether.
Caffeinated beverages. In varying degrees, all caffeinated beverages nudge cancer along. Coffee, made from roasted beans, contains scads of highly carcinogenic burned material. Drinking more than four cups of coffee a day is associated with an increased incidence of cancer. Cutting back presumably decreases cancer risk, but not as much as if you give up java for good.
What about decaffeinated coffee? It may contain residues of methylene chloride, a powerful carcinogen used to remove the caffeine from coffee. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has designated methylene chloride a hazardous chemical, deeming the cancer risk associated with the compound "among the highest ever calculated for chemicals from consumer products." If you drink decaf, make sure the caffeine has been removed using the chemical-free water process.
My suggestion: Switch to tea.
Fish. Fish, especially shellfish, are frequently contaminated with carcinogens that they pick up from the water they live in. They should be avoided. (You'll read more about fish in chapter 16.)
Mushrooms. Certain mushrooms--most notably the common white variety sold in most supermarkets--contain an array of naturally occurring carcinogens and other toxins. Most notably, they're rich in hydrazines, powerful, naturally occurring compounds that--believe it or not--have been used as rocket fuel. These mushrooms should be omitted from any health-supporting diet.
On the other hand, oriental mushrooms such as enoki, oyster, shiitake, and tree ear are assets to an anti-cancer diet. They possess pro-immunity and antiviral properties and have been used to treat cancer, infections, and arthritis, lupus, and other autoimmune diseases.
Potatoes. An exceptional nutritionally complete food, the potato is a staple of any vegetarian diet. Note, however, that any bruises and eyes contain harmful chemicals. Remove these areas prior to cooking.
Processed meats. Nitrite, a potent carcinogen, is used as a preservative in bacon, beef jerky, hot dogs, lunchmeat, sausage, and other processed meat products. You should eliminate these foods anyway because they're so high in fat. If you have a hankering for a frank, try a tofu dog as a tasty, nitrite-free substitute.
Soft drinks. Many popular carbonated beverages contain ingredients that are associated with cancer: brominated oils, caffeine, caramel color, and phosphoric acid. Read labels and steer clear of products that list these substances as ingredients.
All sugar-sweetened beverages should be eliminated. Fruit juicesweetened varieties are okay. Just make sure that they're made with real fruit juice--not with fructose or "from concentrate," a euphemism for fructose.
As an alternative to soft drinks, try fruit-flavored herbal iced tea. Or make your own "soda" by mixing one part seltzer water with one part organic juice. Some of my favorites are apple, apricot, berry, grape, grapefruit, guava, and strawberry.
Sugar. All excess sugar that you consume is transformed into saturated fat, which adds to your body's burden of carcinogens. Sugar contributes to cancer another way as well: It suppresses immune response by hampering antibody production, impairing lymphocyte effectiveness, and decreasing phagocytosis (the ability of white blood cells to engulf and kill cancer cells).
In one study, healthy volunteers consumed a variety of sugars, including fructose, glucose, honey, orange juice, and sucrose. The ability of their phagocytic cells to engulf bacteria (a measure of immune function) was significantly impaired for several hours afterward. Starches--corn, potatoes, and rice--did not have the same effect.
In another study, rats fed a high-sugar diet had a much higher rate of breast cancer than rats fed a starchy diet.
By adhering to the dietary suggestions outlined above, you can dramatically reduce your risk of cancer. Admittedly, not all of these changes will come easily. But think of them this way: You're making a conscious decision to live healthfully and cancer-free. That's a whole lot better than having to choose between chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery sometime down the road.
As the misdirection and futility of an after-the-fact approach to cancer becomes increasingly evident, government-sponsored research efforts will shift their focus to prevention. More information will become available about specific cancer-fighting nutrients and food components.
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Now that you know which foods can cause cancer, the next chapter profiles the foods (and supplements) that can prevent it. Your Anti-Aging Diet has to serve up hefty amounts of these cancer-fighters in order to be optimally protective.