Powerhouse Nutrition for the New Year
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Due to technical error, this ShareRing Network call was not recorded and couldn't be transcribed.
Below is a summary of the call, written by speaker Kim Dalzell.
Monday night I went to my son’s basketball game. I sat next to a woman who saw me reading a study on cancer and nutrition – and she asked me about it because her son, now 11 and sitting next to me, was a cancer survivor. He had been diagnosed with leukemia at the age of two. We talked for a bit, and she told me of the struggles she had to get him to eat right. I began to tell her how important it was to get the right foods in him. Her response was, “well, he had cancer a long time ago.” I told her, “if the treatment killed 99.9% of the cancer, but if one cell is left behind it could clone itself and come back in full force. She didn’t want to hear it. I don’t blame her. Unfortunately, most cancer patients leave their oncologists office with a huge question mark over their head, asking “will my cancer come back? Or “can I do anything to prevent it from coming back?”
Many of them are told they are cancer free and should get back to “real life”.
And so they do. And when they do this, they miss a valuable, life-saving opportunity to squelch the growth of that one cancer cell that may be left behind. Applying the right nutrients, for example, can in most cases stop the initiation and promotion phases of cancer. Food offers powerful mechanisms for healing and regeneration of healthy cells and I believe that cancer patients who are not given that message are cheated. A solid nutrition plan is vital, especially after someone has been diagnosed with cancer—as Dr and professor David Heber has stated, “diet has its most significant effects AFTER the cancer has already formed, because nutrients can act to inhibit or stimulate the growth of that cancer.”
Here are my key points for tonight’s discussion: I could give you a list of food choices and maybe you’d eat them and maybe you wouldn’t. But tonight I wanted to give you something much more than a “to do” list—I wanted to help you understand just how critical what you eat is to how well you live and how long you live. Each of you has the opportunity to change the course of your health by providing your body with the right kind of nutrients. An overwhelming body of science has found that what we eat can affect our cells—our internal growing environment. The questions to keep in the forefront of your mind should be, “Is my body cancer friendly?” Am I eating foods that contribute to illness or wellness?
I’d love to talk about all the foods that fuel or fight breast cancer but we just don’t have time. So let’s talk about the two foods that have caused the most controversy in the breast cancer community:
Soy: Soybeans contain compounds that act as weak plant estrogens, but we aren’t certain about how soy works in the body. I like to explain it like this: let’s say that all estrogens –plant and human—are cruise ships. These cruise ships may vary a bit in structure but they all fit into the same port space. And that port space is the estrogen receptor site on your cell. Here is what we think happens in your body: If you eat soy, the soy ships will cruise right into your cell port and block the way so the more potent estrogen ships that have a tendency to activate the growth of breast cancer cells can’t get in. That just may reduce your risk of getting breast cancer-- that’s a good thing.
But should you eat soy if you’re trying to prevent a recurrence of breast cancer? Given my analogy, the goal would be to keep cruise ship traffic to a minimum--as higher levels of circulating estrogen (lots of cruise ships) may spur on the growth of breast cancer cells. That theory of estrogen activation is confirmed by several in vitro and animal studies. Indeed, highly concentrated sources of soy have shown to spur breast cancer cell growth. Still, you’d think you’d want some of those ports filled up by weaker ships so the big, nasty ships don’t get in. And soy does contain other compounds that offer cancer-fighting properties. That is why the American and Canadian Dietetic Associations recommendation for women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer is to eat 1-2 servings of soy foods per week – to allow for small amounts of soy (30 mg per food serving) without inundating the system with too much estrogen activity. Controlling the cruise ships. The key word in this recommendation is soy food, such as soy milk, tofu, tempeh, soy nuts, etc. You will want to avoid high levels of isoflavone content found in concentrated sources of soy (listed on labels as isolated soy protein) often found in smoothies, health shake mixes, dietary supplements for menopause and energy bars.
Flax: Flaxseeds look like sesame seeds but are darker in color and also contribute weak plant estrogens to the body. For this reason, flax has been thrown into the controversial ring along with soy. However, flax also contains lignans -- fiber-like compounds that have been found to inhibit the growth of breast cancer cells in vitro—the mechanism is still not clear. Until recently, mixed reviews were all we had. As of May 2005, reseachers demonstrated that post-menopausal women with breast cancer who consumed the equivalent of 1 oz ground flax seed in the form of a muffin significantly reduced tumor growth, increased apoptosis, and lowered HER2-neu protein expression.
