"The Best Diet for Cancer Patients" Our lifetime risk of
developing an invasive cancer, not like some superficial skin
cancer or like ductal carcinoma of the breast, but serious
cancer is about 40%. Two in five of us are going to get a
cancer diagnosis in our lifetimes. What can we do to reduce our risk? Only about 5% of cancers are caused by problem genes we
inherited from our parents. The other 95% are
caused by mutations in our DNA we acquire
in our lifetimes.
For example, based on a genetic
analysis of lung cancer, smokers may acquire an
average of one DNA mutation for every 15 cigarettes smoked. Smoking is bad, but the number one
cause of these mutations is our diet, and that’s not even including
the cancers attributed to obesity. I’ve got tons of videos on dietary
approaches to prevent cancer, but what if you
already have it? Well-meaning professionals
sometimes counsel cancer patients to “Eat whatever you want.“ Given the time constraints that doctors
face, it may be understandable that the treating oncologist,
the treating cancer doctor, may be reluctant to engage in
a conversation about nutrition, but given the critical
role that diet may play, perhaps it should be a critical
part of their job to be able to answer patients’ questions
about nutrition before and after cancer treatment
and not default to the unhelpful “it doesn’t really matter,
eat whatever you want” which may not be in the
best interest of the patient. The official recommendation of the American Institute
for Cancer Research, a leading authority
on diet and cancer, is that those with cancer
should follow the same diet that helps prevent cancer from
taking root in the first place.
That means more whole grains,
vegetables, fruits, and beans, while limiting fast food, processed
food, meat, soda and alcohol. Similar recommendations have been put forth by other cancer authorities: more fruit, vegetables,
whole grains, and beans, and less salt, sugar,
meat, and alcohol. Cancer survivors adhering to
these guidelines do seem to live significantly longer, or at
least older female cancer survivors, the only group in which
it’s been looked at so far. They add that there are certain
foods that may be beneficial in cancer care including: beans,
berries, cruciferous vegetables, flaxseed, garlic, green tea,
tomatoes, and others, but emphasizes it’s not about a single
magic bullet food or component, but the combination of foods in
a predominantly plant-based diet.
Here’s how some popular diets
used by cancer patients stack up. The so-called alkaline diet
gets high marks for being vegetable-focused and encouraging
people to cut down on animal foods. The keto diet does the worst,
though they get points for keeping people away from refined grains,
alcohol and soft drinks. Macrobiotic diets win the day,
being closest to a whole food, plant-based diet, centered
around whole grains, vegetables, and beans though may not
be advising enough fruit. Paleo diets are a mixed bag with
insufficient whole grains and beans and too much meat, and the
vegan diet starts out strong, but doesn’t necessarily preclude
all manner of vegan junk food.
Have any of these diets
been put to the test? I’ve done a video on the
abject failure of the keto diet. The alkaline diet was tried
on eleven lung cancer patients. They lived an average of
28 and a half months, which is about 40% longer
than most patients have historically lived, but there
was no direct control group. The only diet proven in a
randomized controlled trial to reverse the progression of cancer
was Dr. Dean Ornish’s whole food plant-based lifestyle program,
which I’ve covered before.
Most randomized controlled trials
to date on diet and cancer are like this, feasibility
studies just to see if we can get cancer patients to
eat healthier. Period. Otherwise what’s the point
of even running the study? Here they did find they could get
patients with head and neck cancer to ramp up green leafy and
cruciferous vegetable intake up to 9 cups a week, so it’s at
least something you could test, but we don't yet have outcomes
data, but why wait? What’s the downside of
trying to eat healthier? It may even save your
life, another way. Cardiovascular disease competes with
breast cancer as the leading cause of death for older women
diagnosed with breast cancer. Researchers followed more
than 60,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer
over the age of 65 for an average of nine years,
by which time half had died. And the number one cause of death
was actually cardiovascular disease, edging out the breast cancer,
and so choosing a healthy diet centered around whole plant foods,
the only diet ever proven to reverse heart disease
in the majority of patients, may save your life, whether
you have cancer or not.
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