NUTRITION
Background: I am fighting Prostate Cancer and so far winning. I have
had surgery, then chemo and then radiation in this battle-I have
changed my diet big time and I believe it is helping
I am neither a doctor nor a medical professional or a nutritionist and
thus this is only my opinion.
Having said that, I have read many nutrition books lately
* Beating Cancer With Nutrition (Patrick Quillan, 2005),
* How to Prevent and Treat Cancer with Natural Medicine (Dr Michael
Murray et al, 2002),
* Dr Katz's Guide to Prostate Health, from Convention to Holistic
Therapies (Dr Aaron Kathz, 2006),
* Fantastic Voyage, Live Long Enough to Live Forever (Ray Kurszweil,
Dr Terry Grossman, 2004)]
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I am now convinced that cancer directly comes from broken/damaged DNA
(DNA is the blueprint for cells and found in every cell in our body).
The human body is constantly making new cells and older cells
deliberately die, are broken down and recycled. For example, red blood
cells only survive about 120 days and white blood cells often last as
little as a few days. Your skin cells last about 21 days.
Thus your body is constantly making new cells and breaking down old
cells and recycling the parts when it can. Making a new cell generally
means an existing cell splits into two parts (including the DNA) and
now you have a new cell, complete with new DNA and so on. (The old
cell has died and been recycled).
But if the new cell has a defect in the new DNA (due to a
transcription mistake, poor nutrition or a toxin in our body), that
cell usually dies (known as Cell Apoptosis and often triggered by DNA
gene p53) or the human body usually detects this DNA mistake and
breaks down the cell since it is poorly constructed. It is said in one
book I have that the human body beats off cancer cells 4 or 5 times
over our life, before the defective cell can actually become a tumor.
To detect these defective cells and break them down, your bodies many
complex parts must be working well together, i.e. your immune system,
your lymphatic system, your circulatory system, your nervous system
and so on. All our individual cells (we have trillions of them in each
of us) likely have a distinct life span, some measured in days and
others in years.
Each of these cells needs certain nutrients to behave
properly. These nutrients include glucose (a form of sugar, obtained
from carbohydrates in our diet), proteins (from meat and dairy
products in our diet) and essential oils (ALA, DHA, EPA - from flax
seed and fish in our diet)).
Glucose is the raw fuel each cell needs for life and the other
materials (proteins, oils, minerals, vitamins, fats, etc) are building
blocks for new cells etc.
It is worth nothing that insulin(from our pancreas) regulates the
amount of glucose in the blood stream and too much or too little is
very bad for you. The building blocks are important for proper cell
construction - eat the wrong foods for too long and you will likely
have poorly constructed cells. It is no surprise then that eating
properly is very important.
How do we know we are eating properly?
Our remarkable human bodies evolved over time (many thousands of
years) until we evolved to the state we are at today. Specifically,
many thousands of years ago, man became an upright individual and
commenced eating fruits, vegetables, fish and the occasional live
animal he could capture and eat.
Look at your teeth and compare them to the teeth of your dog or cat -
our teeth are our hint that our bodies are more designed for fruits
and vegetables while the teeth/fangs of a dog or cat tell you their
bodies are designed for meat.
Thus, we should eat more fresh fruits and fresh vegetables than we
traditionally do. Did you know that cancer only affected 3% of
Americans in 1900 and now it is about 25%? What changed since 1900?
I am not sure but I know the food industry tried to increase the shelf
life of foods so they added partially hydrogenated oils and
preservatives, starting in the 1950s or so.
These are not found in nature and thus not good for us (the partially
hydrogenated oils and preservatives). To make it taste better, the
food industry also added many forms of sugar (fructose, sucrose,
galactose, maltose, etc) to sweeten it and thus enhance the taste. But
we should eat what is good for us and not what necessarily tastes
good. Taste is not indicator of the quality of the food in many cases.
I think we should stop eating sugar-laden food, refined food (like
white bread, white rice), fast food, frozen dinners/pizza, fortified
breakfasts and so on. Avoid food that contains high fructose corn
syrup, partially hydrogenated anything or artificial colors or flavors
or preservatives or any chemicals.
We also need to stop microwaving food as the microwaves target the
water molecules in food and thus disrupt the nutrients that are in the
food (Most nutrients are based on water)
Switch to what our bodies need (and expect) and only then will our
body's complex systems get the raw materials they are built for and
really need to properly work. Generally speaking, eat natural
fruits/vegetables in a wide rainbow of colors every day and skip the
fast food, the TV dinners and so on.
I have dramatically changed my diet since I started battling cancer (I
now eat only raw and fresh fruits and vegetables and pure juices (with
no additives)).
Every day I am eating fresh blueberries, strawberries,
grape juice, onions, cinnamon, radishes, pomegranate juice, flax
seeds, blueberry juice, prunes, raspberries, kale, garlic,
blackberries, radishes, V8 and so on).
The water I drink is very pure also (effectively rain water). I also
take a multivitamin (includes selenium). I soon plan to add (wild, not
farm raised) salmon to my diet to get the essential DHA and EPA oils.
(EPA has natural anti-inflammatory properties. DHA serves as the
primary structural lipid of the brain and retina of the eye).
I feel generally fine and my family and friends say I look the best I
have in years. My message here is to skip sugar (cancer loves sugar),
white bread/rice, fast food, frozen food, refined food and instead go
for fruits and vegetables-take them home, wash them off and eat them.
I mix all my fruits and vegetables in a blender and it works for me
and it may work for you. When you shop for food, read the ingredients
to see what is in that food and avoid those that have coloring or
preservative or sweetening ingredients. Ask your doctor or
nutritionist if you have questions about this. I also welcome your
comments on this topic.
Joe
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