Health Choices to Avoid Cancer

I’ve been asked by a number of people, just this last week, to run this column, again. They clipped it from the paper and sent it to friends and relatives to stick on the refrigerator but forgot to keep one for themselves. These suggestions are good for all of us whether we are challenged with cancer or not.

Cancer scares all of us. For sure, it is a dreaded word and disease. Regular medicine has some successes with treatment but often hope for success turns to a long and costly downhill process.  I’ll write about what I would do to nutritionally support myself day-to-day with or without a diagnosis of cancer. Many, good food choices help reduce cancer risk, some more than others. Remember, this is only my opinion, but if you know me then you know the suggestions I’ll make about food selection are based on good science. Also, the food has to be tasty and available or I wouldn’t eat it regularly.

I’ll call this a synergistic whole food choice for cancer as what follows can be done along with regular medical treatments without any risk, what-so-ever. Likely, an enhancement in health will occur so this is what I would do:

1.  Use the glycemic index food plan choosing foods 65 or lower (get this from the South Beach Diet book).

2.  Add coconut oil to improve energy.

3.  Eliminate/reduce red meat consumption. Be careful in your fish selection, emphasizing “wild caught”. All meat should be free of additives, hormones, and antibiotics.

I’d emphasize the following fresh (support your Farmer’s Market) foods and eat as much as I wanted;

artichokes, asparagus fresh or canned, broccoli, brussels sprouts, garlic – fresh, mushrooms (any type), onions – yellow, pomegranate fruit (not juice), red cabbage is best but green is OK, stabilized rice bran and whole grains.

I’d stop all fruit juice as the most up-to-date science clearly shows that while regular table sugar fuels the growth of many cancers, fruit sugar (fructose) supercharges it. I’d replace juice with whole fruit as nature has balanced the fruit sugar with the goodness of the entire edible. So, I’d avoid fructose, table sugar, corn sugar and high fructose corn syrup. I’d be sure to have enough iodine in my diet either from shrimp, iodized salt or kelp supplementation.

Alkalinity (base), naturally increases as we move to a more plant-based diet so don’t overdo on that count. In fact, overdoing alkalinity can cause health disruptions. For example, urinary stones and infections may increase without a proper acid/base balance.

There are many powerful supplements that are beneficial but that is for a different time.