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Pancreatic Cancer In Dogs

THE FOUR OF US HAVE PRACTICED as naturopaths for at least 17 years each, and during this time we've studied the role of diet in cancer prevention. Based on our experience and the latest research, we recommend these seven dietary rules to help protect you against cancer.

1. Load Up on Fruits and Vegetables

The most important dietary measure you can take to reduce your cancer risk is to eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables every day. Produce contains potent cancer-fighting substances, including soluble fiber, vitamins, minerals, plant pigments like carotenes and flavonoids, and enzymes like glutathione peroxidase. These substances protect your cells from the damage that raises your risk of cancer.

Choose at least one food per day from the five key color groups--red, orange, yellow and light green, dark green, and purple--for a total of 10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. For specific cancer-fighting foods in all these color groups, see "30 Power Foods," page 85.

2. Avoid Pesticides

In the United States, farmers add approximately 4 pounds of pesticides and herbicides per person to crops every year. Some of these chemicals have been linked to cancer. Additionally, some researchers fear that exposure to certain pesticides may impair your body's ability to neutralize cancer-causing chemicals from other sources, thereby increasing your cancer risk. Experts also suspect that some pesticides accumulate in your fat cells, where they act like the hormone estrogen and cause estrogen-related health problems, like breast cancer and other kinds of cancer.

Although it's difficult to completely avoid pesticides, you can reduce your exposure. As much as possible, buy organic fruits and vegetables, which are produced without harmful pesticides. Otherwise, buy local and in-season fruits and vegetables (produce that's shipped long distances or grown out of season is often treated with more pesticides). Remove any surface pesticide residues by soaking the items in a gallon of water and one to two teaspoons of additive-free soap like Ivory or pure Castile for one to two minutes before scrubbing and rinsing. Most natural food stores also carry natural, biodegradable cleansers that can help rinse off pesticide residues.

3. Eat the Right Kind of Fat

Research has linked diets high in fat to numerous kinds of cancers. However, just as important as the amount of fat is the type of fat you consume.

Two fats to avoid are saturated fats (found in foods like meat, dairy products, and coconuts) and trans fats (found in margarine and processed foods that feature "hydrogenated oil" on the ingredients list). Both kinds of fat can damage your cell membranes and interfere with your body's ability to use essential fatty acids, good fats that protect you against disease.

Three noteworthy omega-3 essential fatty acids are alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) from flaxseeds, and docosahexanoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) from cold-water fish. Your body transforms them into compounds, called prostaglandins, that inhibit cancer. In addition, ALA, DHA, and EPA help keep your cell membranes fluid and healthy so your cells can hold in water, vital nutrients, and electrolytes, and can communicate with each other. If your cell membranes don't function well, your cells are more susceptible to injury and death, which in turn increases your cancer risk.

Aim to get less than 30 percent of your calories per day from all kinds of fat and 10 percent from saturated fat. To increase your ALA intake, add one tablespoon of flaxseeds (grind in a clean coffee grinder) to cereal or salads daily. Eat at least two servings per week of omega-3-rich coldwater fish like halibut, herring, mackerel, and salmon. Or you can take fish oil capsules that provide 120 to 360 mg of EPA and 80 to 240 mg of DHA per day.

4. Consume Less Meat

Study after study confirms that the higher your intake of meat and other animal products, the higher your risk of cancer--especially colon, breast, prostate, and lung cancer. In particular, all meat lacks the antioxidants and other nutrients that protect you from cancer, and it contains saturated fat, which damages your cell membranes, and other potentially cancer-causing compounds, like pesticide residues. When you grill, fry, or broil meat, it forms carcinogenic compounds. And cured or smoked meat like bacon, ham, hot dogs, and jerky contain sodium nitrate and sodium nitrites, which react with amino acids in foods in your stomach to form highly carcinogenic compounds.

To reduce your risk for cancer, limit your intake to 3 or 4 ounces or less of red meat daily (about the size of a deck of playing cards). Avoid well-done, charbroiled, cured, or smoked meat. Consider replacing conventionally raised meat with fish, poultry, free-range or grass-fed meat, or even game meats like buffalo or venison. All these foods contain less saturated fat than conventionally raised meats. Soy foods like hot dogs, soy sausage, tempeh, and even soy pastrami are also great substitutes because they contain no saturated fat. You can find them at your local natural food store and in many mainstream grocery stores.

5. Avoid High-Calorie, Low-Nutrient Foods

Calorie-rich, nutrient-poor foods like potato chips, candy, and soft drinks spell trouble. These items contain few or no cancer-fighting chemicals, yet they fill you up so you don't have room for the good foods that do help you prevent cancer. And their primary ingredients--sugar, fat, and salt--have all been linked to cancer.

High sugar intake is associated with an increased risk of breast, colorectal, and pancreatic cancer. Sugar quickly absorbs into your bloodstream, rapidly raising blood sugar levels. In response, your body boosts its secretion of insulin. Too much insulin promotes the growth of certain kinds of cancer cells, including those in the breast, colon, lung, ovaries, stomach, and prostate. High insulin levels also increase the risk of breast cancer recurrence and death at least threefold, according to a 2002 study in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment. (See rules 3 and 6 to learn about the harmful effects of fat and salt.)

To make healthier choices, read labels carefully. If sugar, fat, or salt is one of the first three ingredients listed, the food is not a good option. Remember that these ingredients can go by other names: sugar has synonyms like sucrose, glucose, maltose, lactose, fructose, and corn syrup. Fat usually appears as oil or lard, and salt often shows up as sodium. Finally, choose snacks with at least 2 g of fiber to help reduce insulin spikes.

6. Lower Salt Intake, Raise Potassium Intake

Many people know that a high-sodium, low-potassium diet can cause high blood pressure, but such a diet also increases your risk of cancer, including colon and esophageal cancer. Too much salt, or sodium chloride, can disrupt your body's proper balance of potassium and other electrolytes. A 1996 study in the Journal of Environmental Pathology, Toxicology, and Oncology noted that sodium is considered a carcinogen, but that potassium protects against cancer.

To reduce your sodium intake, take the salt shaker off the table and flavor foods with herbs, spices, and lemon juice instead. Or try salt substitutes like NoSalt and Nu-Salt that are made with potassium chloride and whose taste is similar to sodium chloride. Buy packaged foods with less than 500 mg of sodium per serving. When you eat out, stay away from menu items with a high sodium content (like barbecued or pickled foods or items cooked in broth) and ask to have sauces, which are common sodium traps, on the side.

Next, increase your potassium intake. Experts recommend consuming five times as much potassium as sodium to lower your cancer risk. Adults should get 2,000 mg of potassium daily. Most fruits and vegetables are naturally high in potassium and low in sodium. Good potassium sources include bananas (396 mg per banana) and potatoes (418 mg in 3 1/2 ounces, about half a potato).

7. Help Your Body Detoxify

Drinking enough water and eating enough fiber will improve your digestion and elimination, thereby helping you ward off toxic compounds called polyamines. When your body doesn't digest protein completely, gut bacteria convert two of the amino acids in protein, arginine and ornithine, to compounds called polyamines. Test tube studies show that cancer cells exposed to polyamines grow exponentially faster than normal cancer cells.

Even mild dehydration can interfere with your digestion, which could allow polyamines to build up in your system. Water also transfers waste materials from cells to your kidneys, which filter out and eliminate toxins. In fact, research shows that low water consumption increases your risk for cancers of the breast, colon, and urinary tract. You need to drink at least six 8-ounce glasses of water every day to flush toxins out of your body.

Soluble fiber also plays a key role in detoxification because it absorbs toxins in your digestive tract. Increase the amount of fiber in your diet gradually over a few weeks to avoid uncomfortable intestinal gas. Aim to get at least 35 g of fiber a day from a variety of food sources like carrots (4.6 g fiber in 1 cup), kidney beans (7.3 g in 1/2 cup), and parsnips (5.4 g in 1 cup).

Getting Started

Easy Ways to Eat Your 10-a-Day

You should eat 10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day to protect yourself from cancer. Here are five ways to boost your intake:

1. Keep a container of cut-up vegetables like broccoli and red or green peppers on the top shelf of your refrigerator for easy snacking.

2. Place a fruit bowl on your kitchen counter or desk.

3. Bring prepackaged chopped vegetables to work to add to soups or salads for lunch.

4. Add shredded vegetables to soups, sauces, and casseroles at home (for example, add grated carrots and zucchini to spaghetti sauce).

5. Top cereal, low-fat yogurt, pudding, frozen yogurt, or sherbet with berries.

Michael Murray, N.D., is a naturopath in Issaquah, Wash., and co-author of Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine (Prima Publishing, 1998). Tim Birdsall, N.D., is the national director of naturopathic medicine and research for Cancer Treatment of America in Zion, Ill. Joseph E. Pizzorno Jr., N.D., is a co-founder of Bastyr University, a college of natural medicine in Kenmore, Wash., and co-author of Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine (Prima Publishing, 1998). Paul Reilly, N.D., is a founding member of the Nutritional Advisory Committee for Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Seattle.

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