MAINSTREAM medecine is finally discovering what holistic doctors have been saying for a very long time.
Three new studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) are proving the benefit of a plant-based diet in greatly
reducing the risk of cancer.
The studies show that high consumption of fruits and
vegetables wards off a variety of cancers including prostate
cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, even leukaemia and multiple myeloma. They also show that eating red meat multiplies the risk of colon cancer.
Another study in the same issue shows that consuming olive oil reduces the risk of breast
cancer. Across the board, we are seeing that a plant-based diet is what prevents cancer and enhances health at many
different levels, including cardiovascular health.
Dietary fibre, which is only found in plant foods, is critical in reducing risk of colon cancer.
A diet high in fibre and low in animal fats virtually immunises you from this cancer, which is now the third commonest cancer.
Recent research has shown that curcumin, the popular spice from the turmeric plant has
powerful anti-cancer properties, perhaps more powerful than some anti-cancer drugs.
Amazingly, these studies were conducted on regular, everyday people that are generally consuming unhealthy diets to begin with.
Most of those people are
eating a lot of cancer-causing ingredients in packaged meats (like sodium nitrite). They are consuming artificial colourings and they are eating monosodium glutamate (MSG) and other ingredients that actually promote cancer.
And yet, the research shows that even the small amount of fruits and vegetables these people get actually protects them from the dangerous effects of those ingredients.
NOT NECESSARILY HEALTHY
Now, if you were to repeat these studies and look at the anti-cancer benefits on people who consume a really healthy vegetarian organic diet, you would see an even stronger protective effect.
Because, in the published
studies the things that researchers consider to be fruits are not necessarily healthy fruits.
For example, eating apple pie is counted as a fruit in the trials. I wouldn't count that as a fruit. It's a cooked, sugary apple pie made with hydrogenated oils, refined white flour and refined sugar in the crust. To me, that's not fruit. That's junk food. But medical studies call that 'fruit'.
The same is true with vegetables. The researchers would
consider spinach lasagna as a vegetable serving.
I consider that to be junk food if it's been purchased at the store. It probably has some sort of chemical taste enhancer like MSG, it has white flour in the crust, and it probably has sugar added in the tomato sauce.
Yes, there's a little bit of spinach in there too, but that's not a vegetable serving. That's just junk food with a bit of spinach filler.
To me, eating spinach means buying raw spinach and having a nice spinach salad, or giving it in a Chinese-style stir fry with nothing but garlic and a little bit of soy sauce. That's a real vegetable serving.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Eat a wide variety of fresh fruit and vegetables daily. The more varied the better. Do not stick to only one or two types.
Different coloured fruit and vegetables contain different phytonutrients that combine to confer more potent anticancer protection. Your plate should look like a rainbow.
Drinking the juices of fresh fruit and vegetables is a great way to get a powerful dose of anti-cancer nutrition. Juice extraction is particularly potent but has the disadvantage of removing the valuable fibre from the juice. Very sweet juices should be diluted and please, do not add any sugar to your juices.
In general, fruit juices tend to be acidic while vegetable juices are essentially alkaline. Fruit and vegetable juices can therefore be mixed to prevent excess acidity while creating a better tasting beverage.
Be sure to wash fruit and vegetables carefully before eating them as higher and higher levels of toxic pesticides are found to contaminate commercial produce. If at all possible, use organic products as they contain more nutrients and are essentially free of harmful chemicals. Consider growing some of your own vegetables.
The nutritional experts have recently increased the amount of fruit and vegetables they suggest we consume. They are now recommending that adults should aim at between 11 and 13 servings of fruit and vegetables daily to obtain maximum anti cancer benefits.
Balance your fruit and vegetable intake with adequate plant based protein foods like soy, beans and peas and whole grains. The right balance is critical.
Yes, eating lots of fruit and vegetables is a great 'Ounce of Prevention' against cancer.
You may email Dr. Vendryes at Vendryes@mac.com or listen to An Ounce of Prevention on POWER 106FM on Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m.
