Nutrition—A Cancer Battle Plan

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General Guidelines

Most of the following guidelines have been created by the Center for Advancement in Cancer Education, though we’ve thrown in a few others we’ve found in our research.

Vegetables

A minimum of fifty percent of your diet should be veggies. The ratio of raw to cooked should range from 50:50 to 70:30 (70% raw, 30% lightly cooked). Raw vegetables give you the enzymes you need, but an entirely raw diet is inadvisable since there are some tough fibrous walls that need to be broken down to get to the nutrition, and this can put a strain on your digestive system. Another way to break down raw foods and make them more assimilable is to grate them, or run them through a food processor. However, you will have to eat them as soon as they are processed, because they begin to degenerate very quickly.

Fresh vegetable juices are a must. The best cancer fighting juice is carrot juice. It is high in beta-carotene and high in alpha-carotene, an often ignored nutrient, though thought by many experts to be ten times more powerful than beta-carotene.

Some nutritionists recommend sprouts either juiced or whole, however, the Gerson Institute strongly recommends against them because, in their experience, sprouts interfere with the action of your enzymes.

Include large amounts of green, leafy veggies and choices from the cabbage family (cruciferous) daily, and don’t forget the sea vegetables such as wakame, nori, kelp, kombu, hizike, and dulce. The sea veggies are great in salads (after being rehydrated and drained) or in soups.

Vinegar

We should make a special note about vinegar here, for many of you will make salad dressings for your veggies. Most vinegars you purchase are destructive to your liver and digestive tract. According to Dr Norman Walker who wrote Fresh Vegetable and Fruit Juices (a must for anyone thinking of juice fasting or just making their own fresh juices), most vinegars contain only acetic acid, not a plus for a cancer diet. Apple cider vinegar contains, in addition to acetic acid, malic acid, an element of the digestive process. If you are going to use vinegar, use unpasteurized, unfiltered, organic apple cider vinegar. Top

Fruits

Ten percent of your diet should be fruit. Eat fruit alone as a small meal or between meals, or at least one half hour before a meal, never after. They should be raw or rehydrated and preferably in season. A breakfast of fruit only is light and highly recommended by movers and shakers. Additionally, since fruit, if properly mixed, does not sit in your stomach long, it can be eaten before bedtime without causing excessive stomach acid.

Keep citrus fruit to a minimum. Yes, we know how the television ads state that orange juice fights cancer, but that is prevention only. Citrus puts your body into an acidic state. Nearly all of the cancer institutes we've talked to during our research said the same thing: if you are battling cancer, keep your citrus to a minimum. Get your vitamin C from supplements. Top

Animal Products

Limit your animal products to two or three small (2 oz.) servings per week. White fleshed fish (preferably cod, haddock, salmon, or trout), or white meat poultry are preferred. Poultry and meat should be raised free range without additional hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides. The Center for Advancement in Cancer Education recommends no red meat, however, Dr Gonzalez of New York says this depends on the person’s own biochemistry. Certainly no processed meats should be consumed. Poached or soft-boiled eggs from flax fed, free range chickens are best.

Depending on who you talk to, some red meat can be permitted on a cancer diet, however, red meat is high in iron, which reacts with oxygen to create free radicals. Thus some small amounts (in stir fries and soups) are recommended, along with antioxidants such as vitamin C and vitamin E. Top

Liquids

Avoid drinking any liquids 15 minutes before a meal, and for three hours following a meal. If you must drink with your meals, our research tells us that what is best is hot green tea made with Willard Water® (can be purchased in many health food stores).

A Chinese study of over 900 middle-aged individuals showed that drinking green tea cut the risk of esophageal cancer by as much as 60%. [Journal of the National Cancer Institute, June 1, 1994]

The phytochemicals (chemicals from plants) in green tea most responsible for its anti-cancer effect are polypherols, and in addition to preventing cancer of the esophagus, are also thought to prevent cancer of the stomach, liver, skin, and lung. (Japanese men smoke more than American’s but have a lower incidence of lung cancer.) Researchers in China believe that green tea also helps to lower blood pressure and blood cholesterol, stabilize blood sugar, kill decay-causing bacteria, and block the action of many carcinogens. (Green tea extracts are now found in many health food stores.)

Black tea too seems to have the same effect, however, analysis shows that there are 4 times the active compounds in green tea than black tea. Researchers at Rutgers State University showed that over a 31 week period with mice exposed to two carcinogens known trigger skin cancer, the experimental group, drinking tea, experienced 70% to 90% fewer skin cancers. Black tea worked as well as green tea, and decaffeinated teas, though showing a slightly smaller anti-cancer effect, were still significantly high. [Environmental Nutrition, November 1994]

An estimated 80% of Americans walk around in a state of virtual dehydration. If you want proof, next time you are in a high-school or grade school, take a tour of one of the boys’ lavatories. Young boys have a tendency not to flush. You will find in the urinals a thick brown substance normally called urine. Because our kids drink so many caffeinated soft-drinks, they are dehydrated.

The color of your urine should range from clear to a light yellow. A dark yellow shows signs of dehydration, even though your throat and mouth feel just fine. For every caffeinated drink, you need to drink one more cup of water. Deepak Chopra recommends water at room temperature, eight to ten glasses per day. Others recommend ten to twelve glasses. Then again, Gerson forbids water. Check with your nutritionist. (For more on teas repudiated to fight cancer, see the article "Alternative Cancer Therapies.")

Avoid caffeinated and artificial drinks (they contain fluoridated and chlorinated water), and fruit juices that have been processed or that have extra sugars added. Whole fruit juices are good in moderation (with added filtered water). Roasted cereal grain beverages (e.g., brown rice, barley) or herbal teas are recommended. Raw vegetable juices are excellent, especially carrot juice.

Again, avoid fluoridated and chlorinated water, but keep your fluid intake up. Ice cold beverages are out. Chinese medicine reminds us that the temperature of digestion is 100º Fahrenheit. Drink your water (and other beverages) at room temperature. Hot herbal teas are also excellent, and for a primo coffee substitute, from Maharishi Ayurveda products, you may drink "Raja’s Cup" which is not only a great drink and coffee substitute, but is charged with antioxidants.

Be sure to empty your bladder as soon as you feel the need to do so. Dr Frank Charles (from Natural Wellness Group in Minneapolis) reminds us that the longer urine is confined to the bladder, the more concentrated it gets. Studies show that persons who hold in their urine get bladder cancer at greater rates than those who go when the urge hits. Top

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This article was added: May 27, 2009

Tidbits & Stuff was born on Thursday, March 9, 2006
© 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Felicia A. Williams

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