| The cancer patient might reasonably ask: If a specific diet, such as a low fat, high fiber whole-foods diet with an emphasis on fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains lowers the incidence of some common cancers, might such a diet also slow or halt the development of one of these same existing cancers? And might a rigorous therapeutic diet along these same lines do even more to slow or reverse a cancer, or lower the chance of its recurrence, than a moderate diet that might be adequate for prevention? |
Marcia Zimmerman, C.N.
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 These factors, also called proanthocyanidins, are members of a large class of protective phenolic compounds that we get from fruits and vegetables. They have been the subject of numerous scientific investigations and their efficacy has been validated by scientists throughout the world. Available in Europe for nearly forty years as prescription drugs for the treatment of venous conditions, these compounds have the unique property of strengthening the walls of arteries, veins, and capillaries, including brain microcapillaries. |
Committee on Comparative Toxicity of Naturally Occurring Carcinogens
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 Substance
Nature of Supporting Evidence3
Extent of Natural
Occurrence in Foods'1 References"
Benzaldehyde
Fores tomach tumors in male and female mice
Caffeine Increased multiplicity but not incidence of spontaneous mammary gland tumors in female mice
Capsaicin Duodenal adenocarcinoma in male and female mice (significant only when all treated groups combined); not mutagenic
Capsicum annuum, (hot) Liver tumors in rats peppers
Found in over 40 foods; fruits and vegetables, 0.2-1 ppm; white bread, 5.0-10 pm; wines, 0.01-1.0 ppm; cocoa, coffee, tea, 2.0 ppm; shellfish, 0. |
Doreen Virtue, Ph.D.
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 Fruits, Vegetables, and Salads: Fresh fruits and vegetables, jams and jellies, juice, pies, purees, salads (including fruit salad), bean salad, vegetable salad, sauces (such as applesauce). t4' t*.chapter four
WHAT TYPE OF EMOTIONAL EATER ARE YOU? y this point, you've probably decided whether or not your food cravings and overeating are based on uncomfortable emotions. Let's look at your eating style a little closer.
Not all emotional eaters are alike. There are five distinct styles of emotional eating; perhaps one or more of these styles describes you. |
Marcia Zimmerman, C.N.
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| OPCs are oligometric proanthocyanidins, which are members of a large class of protective phenolic compounds we get from fruits and vegetables that help strengthen the walls of arteries, veins, and capillaries, including brain capillaries. The addition of sulfites as preservatives to red wine appears to tip the balance between histamine release and retention in blood cells toward greater histamine release. Consequently, histamine "back ups" and blood levels rise, causing discomforts such as headache, drowsiness, and mood swings in those sensitive to high histamine levels. |
John Lauritsen
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 Glucose is found in many fruits and vegetables, usually along with other sugars. It is manufactured in our bodies from other nutrients, and is necessary for life.
• Fructose, or fruit sugar.
• Lactose, or milk sugar.
• Maltose, or malt sugar.
Whereas all other sugars are found in nature together with other nutrients, refined sucrose is pure. Sucrose has no nutritional properties whatever; it is correctly described as an anti-nutrient, because it greatly increases the body's need for B-vitamins, and because it interferes with the body's ability to utilize protein. |
Michael F. Jacobson, Ph.D., Lisa Y. Lefferts and Anne Witte Garland
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| SAFE FOOD CHOICES
Eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains. Try for variety, too—that way you'll be assured of getting the full range of nutrients that different vegetables, fruits, and grains offer, and you will minimize your exposure to any one harmful contaminant.
AT THE MARKET
þ Whenever possible, buy locally grown produce directly from farmers. It is almost always fresher than produce available in stores, and is picked closer to the peak of its ripeness. |
| What are the long-term results of eating fruits and vegetables that have been sprayed with pesticides? What assurance can government and industry offer that the milk we feed our children is safe? The answers are unimpressive. Report after report from government, public-interest groups, and think tanks— including the National Academy of Sciences—documents problems. Too much of our food supply is contaminated with dangerous, questionable, or inadequately tested pesticides, bacteria, industrial pollutants, packaging contaminants, veterinary drugs, and additives. |
| The least risky alternatives would be to buy certified organic produce, and to wash and prepare fruits and vegetables in ways that minimize your exposure to pesticide residues and bacteria.
Here's more help in sorting out some food-risk misconceptions from reality:
Fallacy: Americas food supply is the safest in the world.
Fact: Maybe it is. But this claim, which is made by the government, industry, and industry-supported front groups and academic consultants, has never been proven. |
| Handle and prepare food safely. Wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly. This can help remove some (though not all) of the pesticide residues, as well as harmful bacteria that might be present on the food. Remove outer leaves from leafy vegetables, and peel produce when appropriate. (For tips on when to peel and not to peel, see page 69.)
Cook eggs, meat, fish, and poultry thoroughly to kill harmful bacteria that may be present. Use care with these foods to avoid "cross-contamination"—spreading bacteria to other foods. |
| The servings are quite small (one slice
GRAIN GROUP
9
Mr servings
Anytime
Whole-grain bread,* rolls,* bagels*
Whole-grain crackers,*3 tortillas*
Brown rice*
Bulgur
Whole-grain breakfast cereal* Pasta*
FRUIT & VEGETABLE GROUP
7
M servings
Anytime
All fruits and vegetables (except
those at right) Applesauce, unsweetened Potatoes, white or sweet
1
' Refined-grain versions have less fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
A healthy diet doesn't require eating meat, fish, poultry, eggs, or dairy products. (See page 204 for some resources for vegetarians. |
| When selecting fresh produce, don't shy away from less-than-perfect-looking fruits and vegetables. Perfect-looking produce may be that way because of excessive pesticide use (which makes it less than perfect safety-wise). Don't buy spoiled produce, of course—and avoid anything that is moldy—but you needn't worry about produce that is slightly discolored or misshapen.
Peeling and washing produce
To peel or not to peel? Ifs a toss-up: peeling does completely remove surface pesticides (whereas washing might not remove them all), but peeling can also mean losing valuable fiber and nutrients. |
Gary Null
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 The detoxification process will often depend on rebuilding potassium supplies in the body by including fresh fruits and vegetables in our daily diet.
Toxic substances may severely depress the immune system. It is only in the past half-century, with the increase in environmental pollution and dependence on processed foods, that we have seen a rapid increase in diseases like cancer, heart disease, arthritis, and legionnaires' disease—maladies, unknown not too long ago, that a healthy, normal immune system would be able to fight off. |
| She'll mention the effect of pesticides in the soil and how they affect fruits and vegetables, having them taste the difference between organically grown and nonorganically grown produce. When we take away the stigma of organic food, the idea that it is bland and tasteless, and let patients taste it for themselves, they find it is easy to shift to organics.
Alternative Heart Therapies_
CHELATION THERAPY Chelation therapy is an alternative therapy that has become especially popular since coronary bypass surgery has been pronounced ineffective for up to 65 percent of the people receiving it. |
| This amount is easily obtained from the fresh fruits and vegetables in your diet, including oranges, sweet peppers, and potatoes. Some nutritionists believe that much higher doses (up to 10 grams daily) can help heal serious illnesses and reduce the risk of cancer (see "The Megadose Controversy" below). Hence, supplements may be beneficial. Those with elevated needs for vitamin C are the elderly, dieters, smokers, heavy drinkers, users of certain medications including oral contraceptives, pregnant and nursing women, and those under any type of stress. |
| Today, it is a small fraction of that, and even what appears to be natural has been altered. fruits and vegetables are routinely grown with artificial fertilizers, sprayed with pesticides, treated with hormones and chemicals to control the time of ripening to facilitate mechanical harvesting, dyed, sprayed with chemicals to prevent them from ripening during shipping or to induce ripening after shipping, and coated with waxes to give a glossy appearance.
Modern bread fares no better. |
| Realizing that these fruits and vegetables also contain high-quality fiber, which is essential to free-flowing blood and arterial health— something that is altogether lacking in meat and dairy items—it becomes clear that choosing complex carbohydrates over animal fats lays a solid foundation for recovery from heart disease. After all, the very causes of the heart disease are being eliminated almost entirely from the diet.
While the fat content of white meat may be less than that of red meat, the cholesterol levels may actually be higher. |
Linda Mason Hunter
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 Another benefit of rural living is the ability to live organically, growing fruits and vegetables on your land, feasting off uncontaminated meats, and eating unpolluted fish from a nearby farm pond. But these are benefits only if the air and the water are clean.
Do you see chemical trucks in your neighborhood? These are warning signs of a freshly sprayed lawn or house. When an area is chemically sprayed, insects and other pests usually migrate to the nearest "safe" area, and the spray itself may travel from your neighbor's yard to the area surrounding your home. |
Schuyler W. Lininger, Jr. DC
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 As with many other health conditions, it may be beneficial to eat less meat and dairy fat and more fruits and vegetables.
Some people with Crohn's disease have food allergies (p. 8) and have been reported to do better when they avoid foods to which they are allergic. One study found that people with Crohn's are most likely to react to cereals, dairy, and yeast.5 Yeast and some dairy (cheese) are high in histamine, which is secreted during an allergenic response. |
Jean Carper
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 Predictably, most of the foods listed are fruits and vegetables. For overwhelming evidence shows that vegetarians fare best in averting disease; thus, scientists are more apt to look for—and find—medicinal powers in plant foods. This does not mean everyone should be a strict vegetarian, nor that animal food is devoid of benefit (meat has many nutritional aspects), but it seems clear that eating more vegetables, grains, and fruits is not only intrinsically more healthful, but can also dampen some ill effects of meat diets, such as heart disease and cancer. |
Patricia Hausman & Judith Benn Hurley
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 If so, you probably know that salads offer a delicious way to get more fruits and vegetables onto the menu.
You'll get the most nutrition, of course, if you favor lettuce that is deep green in color. It packs the same nutritional attributes as greens that are traditionally cooked-lots of carotene, some vitamin C, and a fat, sodium, and calorie count to make any heart glad.
One especially interesting fact about lettuce is how often the word appears in reports on cancer prevention. |
| Iran and China that link diets low in vitamin C-rich fruits and vegetables to extraordinarily high rates of cancer of the esophagus.
Although far less cancer research has been done with vitamin E, Dr. Greenwald notes supplementation with both vitamins E and C helps to reduce the formation of gene-altering mutagens in the intestinal tract. He, like many of his fellow scientists, suspects that by keeping those mutagens at bay, the cancer process can be discouraged.
Of course, no discussion of nutrition would be complete without mentioning selenium. |
| It's true that the fiber found in other foods, such as certain fruits and vegetables, also can help improve these disorders. But there are indications that unprocessed bran works the best. A study by S. N. Heller, Ph.D., and co-workers at Cornell University found that coarse bran better absorbs water in the digestive tract, a process that is believed to account for its beneficial effects.
At the Market: True, it resembles sawdust, but if you look closely enough you'll notice that the little flakes come in small, medium, and large sizes. |
| Although fat free, artichokes do have more naturally occurring sodium than most fruits and vegetables. If you are on a sodium-restricted diet, take note: One medium cooked artichoke contains 80 milligrams of sodium. Of course, this is still low when compared to many processed foods.
At the Market: Picking out a good artichoke isn't difficult. A good one is uniform in appearance, olive green in color, and marked by leaves that are tightly closed. For steaming, round artichokes are the best. The outside appearance of an artichoke, how ever, is not the sole test. |
Gary Null
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| The core of Gerson therapy is a regimen consisting primarily of a saltless and fatless diet of organically grown fresh fruits and vegetables which are usually served raw or as juices. The primary objective of the diet is to detoxify the entire body and rebalance the whole metabolism, not simply to eliminate the symptoms of the disease. "The treatment has to penetrate deeply to correct all vital processes," says Dr. Gerson. "When general metabolism is restored, we can again influence the functioning of all organs, tissues, and cells though it. |
Schuyler W. Lininger, Jr. DC
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| This occurs partly because fruits and vegetables contain potassium (p. 323)—a known blood pressure-lowering mineral.8 The best way to supplement potassium is with fruit, which contains more of the mineral than amounts found in potassium supplements. However, fruit contains so much potassium that people taking "potassium sparing" drugs (as some hypertensives do) can end up with too much potassium by eating several pieces of fruit per day. Therefore, people taking potassium-sparing diuretics should consult the prescribing doctor before increasing fruit intake. The fiber (p. |
Doreen Virtue, Ph.D.
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| Yes, we can follow general advice such as eating more fresh fruits and vegetables and consistently exercising. Yet, we all know that such guidelines aren't sufficient to sustain permanent weight loss. The fact is that most people return to unhealthful eating within two years of exhibiting substantial weight loss.
Diets are abandoned for several reasons, as some of my clients' experiences will show:
1. The recommended menus are too restrictive. For example, my client Dianna tried a "high-protein" diet, where she was supposed to eat only meat, cheese, eggs, and a few vegetables. |
Schuyler W. Lininger, Jr. DC
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| Dietary Changes That May Be Helpful
Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables will provide more of the nutrients mentioned in the following chapter that support the structure of capillaries.
Nutritional Supplements That May Be Helpful
People undergoing dialysis may develop low levels of vitamin C (p. 341), which leads to capillary fragility.1 As little as 100 mg per day may help people with artificially induced fragility. For others, higher amounts may be necessary (1 gram or more).2 Vitamin C has been used to treat capillary weakness accompanying diabetes (p. 53). |
| In the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) trial, increasing intake of fruits and vegetables (and therefore fiber) and reducing cholesterol and dairy fat led to large reductions in blood pressure (in medical terms, 11.4 systolic and 5.5 diastolic) in just 8 weeks.10 Even though it did not employ a vegetarian diet itself, the outcome of the DASH trial supports the usefulness of vegetarian diets because diets employed by DASH researchers were related to what many vegetarians eat. |
Jean Antonello
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 And stock up on fresh fruits and vegetables, the ones you especially like. And get milk and cereal and soups and crackers. Fill up your refrigerator and cupboards with real, wholesome food, and don't be afraid anymore.
Keep your food stock full
DIET DOCTRINE #9: You have to exercise to burn off calories so they won't be stored as fat.
Another pervasive modern paranoia about body fat is that any calories that are taken in will be turned into fat unless they are used up in formal, regimented exercise. This belief is linked to other irrational but popular ideas about obesity. |
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