Can Junk Food Cause Cancer?
The new documentary Forks Over Knives claims that a diet of processed foods and junk food is to blame for most major diseases
Jill Provost ON May 4, 2011 at 11:19AM
Just when you think you’re living a healthy lifestyle, a documentary like Forks Over Knives comes along to shatter all of your healthier-than-thou notions. Forget patting yourself on the back for adding more fish, olive oil and low-fat dairy to your diet. If you really want to prevent heart disease, cancer, diabetes and just about every other major disease in the developed world, you should be forsaking meat, dairy, sugar and refined or processed foods, say the doctors and researchers in this documentary, which opens in theaters Friday, May 6.
This isn’t just a matter of opinion, say the filmmakers Lee Fulkerson and Brian Wendel. Like an elaborate (vegan) feast, Forks Over Knives lays out all of the scientific evidence that they say proves our diet is killing us. Among them: A study where researchers could turn cancer on and off by adding or removing animal protein from the subjects’ diets. It’s not your genes, it’s not the BPA in your plastics and it’s not the pesticides in your produce, they say. It’s our love affair with meat, sugar and dairy.
The stats that film assails us with are frightening: Two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. Fifty percent of us are on at least one prescription medication. The U.S. spends $2.2 trillion on healthcare -- five times as much as we do on defense. One out of three of us will get diabetes –- the same number will die of heart disease. Men in this country have a 47 percent chance of getting cancer; women have a 38 percent chance.
Forks Over Knives profiles, among others, two renowned experts -- Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D., director of the Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and Reversal Program at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute, and T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., a pioneering nutrition researcher and author of The China Study. A former cardiovascular surgeon, Esselstyn now focuses on reversing heart disease in his patients through a plant-based, whole foods diet. In the documentary, he claims that heart disease is a toothless paper tiger -- it doesn’t even have to exist. Patients have come to him when, after bypasses failed, they were told they wouldn’t live through the year. By limiting them to whole grains, fruit, vegetables and legumes, Esselstyn not only kept many alive for decades, but halted their heart disease as well.
If this diet sounds too extreme for you, consider Dr. Esselstyn’s retort. “With the Western diet, there are going to be half a million people in this country this year who will have to have the front half of their body divided, their heart exposed. Some people would call that extreme,” he says.
According to Esselstyn, autopsies on 18-34-year-old Americans who died in accidents revealed that everyone over 20 has heart disease -- not enough to trigger a heart attack, but the arteries are already damaged. Compare that to rural China, where residents eat mainly plants. There, heart disease is non-existent.
“We know there are certain foods that every time they pass our lips, they will injure our blood vessels,” says Esselstyn. By eliminating those foods, the body has a remarkable capacity to repair itself and stop, or even reverse, heart disease,” he says. “Everybody who’s been eating the western diet has this disease. So one really is left with the personal decision of, ‘Do I continue to eat foods that will grow my disease, or should I stop the disease now in its tracks?’ Nutrition trumps everything. There is nothing more powerful to our health than food.”
Since watching Forks Over Knives last week, I have been struggling hard with this personal choice. I don’t want to give up meat, fish and oils -- I love sushi and cheese and the occasional slab of steak -- but I do know that I can cut back. Yesterday, I bypassed the meat section of the supermarket and filled my cart with tofu, seitan and quinoa instead. I’ve been eating homemade “oatmeal” each morning, made with wild rice, barley, steel-cut oats and dried fruit. I’ve been snacking on homemade kale and apple chips all week. I enjoy these foods, feel good about my choices and don’t feel deprived. But then again, I haven’t given up meat, and I don’t see myself going vegan any time soon, unless my health demands it. I realize that continuing to eat these foods is a bit like playing Russian roulette. But I like to think that adding as many fruits, vegetables and whole grains to my diet as I can is also a bit like donning an (admittedly untested) bullet-resistant vest.
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MY THOUGHTS
I can live without meat. I cannot live without bread. Was there any mention of bread?
Showing posts with label cancer free. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cancer free. Show all posts
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
SIMPLE LIFE CHANGES COULD PREVENT CANCER
Simple life changes could stop millions of cancers
Published February 04, 2011
http://www.lifescript.com/Health/News/Reuters/2011/02/04/Simple_life_changes_could_stop_millions_of_cancers.aspx
LONDON (Reuters) - About a third of all common cancers in the United States, China and Britain could be prevented each year if people ate healthier food, drank less alcohol and exercised more, health experts said on Friday.
Estimates from the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) and the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) suggest that making simple lifestyle changes could prevent some 40 percent of breast cancers alone in Britain and the United States, as well as tens of thousands of colon, stomach and prostate cancers.
"It is distressing that even in 2011, people are dying unnecessarily from cancers that could be prevented through maintaining a healthy weight, diet, physical activity and other lifestyle factors," Martin Wiseman, a WCRF medical and scientific adviser, said in statement.
In China, 620,000 cases, or 27 percent are preventable, the WCRF said, as are about 35 percent, or 340,000, in the United States and 37 percent in Britain. Healthier lifestyles could prevent 61,000 cancers in Brazil and 79,000 in Britain.
The WCRF findings are backed by World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, which say regular exercise can prevent many diseases such as cancers, heart diseases and diabetes.
Cancer is a leading cause of death around the world and its incidence is rising. Each year around 12.7 million people discover they have cancer and 7.6 million people die from some form of the disease. There are about 200 known types of cancer.
According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), cancer will kill more than 13.2 million people a year by 2030, almost double the number it killed in 2008 -- and the vast majority of deaths will be in poorer countries.
In a separate statement, the Geneva-based WHO said low levels of physical inactivity are the main cause of an estimated 21 to 25 percent of breast and colon cancers, 27 percent of diabetes cases and 30 percent of heart disease cases worldwide.
Rachel Thompson, the WCRF's deputy head of science, said that while the message was simple -- that not smoking, eating good food and being a healthy weight can help ward off many cancers -- it was still a difficult one to get across.
"It's all very well us saying 'this is what you need to eat and this is how much physical activity you need to do', but we need to make it easier for people to make those changes," she said. "Everybody has a role in that -- from international organizations, to governments, to people themselves."
The WHO says adults should do at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week. This could be done by walking for 30 minutes five times per week or by cycling to work every day.
Peter Baldini, head of the World Lung Foundation, also called on all governments to introduce smoke-free laws and raise the price of cigarettes.
Tobacco kills millions of smokers every year, and tobacco-related lung cancers also kill hundreds of thousands of people who don't smoke but have been exposed to it second-hand.
"There isn't a magic bullet to cure all forms of cancer, but we have the opportunity and the obligation to protect people from developing cancer wherever possible," Baldini said.
MY THOUGHTS
30 minutes of walking 5 times a week. that doesn't seem very hard. the harder part would be the change in eating and other habits. our busy lifestyles makes it difficult to avoid processed foods, oily take-outs and dinners from a can. but something has to give. it's not even an issue of living longer. it's an issue of what cancer can do to us and our loved ones.
Published February 04, 2011
http://www.lifescript.com/Health/News/Reuters/2011/02/04/Simple_life_changes_could_stop_millions_of_cancers.aspx
LONDON (Reuters) - About a third of all common cancers in the United States, China and Britain could be prevented each year if people ate healthier food, drank less alcohol and exercised more, health experts said on Friday.
Estimates from the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) and the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) suggest that making simple lifestyle changes could prevent some 40 percent of breast cancers alone in Britain and the United States, as well as tens of thousands of colon, stomach and prostate cancers.
"It is distressing that even in 2011, people are dying unnecessarily from cancers that could be prevented through maintaining a healthy weight, diet, physical activity and other lifestyle factors," Martin Wiseman, a WCRF medical and scientific adviser, said in statement.
In China, 620,000 cases, or 27 percent are preventable, the WCRF said, as are about 35 percent, or 340,000, in the United States and 37 percent in Britain. Healthier lifestyles could prevent 61,000 cancers in Brazil and 79,000 in Britain.
The WCRF findings are backed by World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, which say regular exercise can prevent many diseases such as cancers, heart diseases and diabetes.
Cancer is a leading cause of death around the world and its incidence is rising. Each year around 12.7 million people discover they have cancer and 7.6 million people die from some form of the disease. There are about 200 known types of cancer.
According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), cancer will kill more than 13.2 million people a year by 2030, almost double the number it killed in 2008 -- and the vast majority of deaths will be in poorer countries.
In a separate statement, the Geneva-based WHO said low levels of physical inactivity are the main cause of an estimated 21 to 25 percent of breast and colon cancers, 27 percent of diabetes cases and 30 percent of heart disease cases worldwide.
Rachel Thompson, the WCRF's deputy head of science, said that while the message was simple -- that not smoking, eating good food and being a healthy weight can help ward off many cancers -- it was still a difficult one to get across.
"It's all very well us saying 'this is what you need to eat and this is how much physical activity you need to do', but we need to make it easier for people to make those changes," she said. "Everybody has a role in that -- from international organizations, to governments, to people themselves."
The WHO says adults should do at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week. This could be done by walking for 30 minutes five times per week or by cycling to work every day.
Peter Baldini, head of the World Lung Foundation, also called on all governments to introduce smoke-free laws and raise the price of cigarettes.
Tobacco kills millions of smokers every year, and tobacco-related lung cancers also kill hundreds of thousands of people who don't smoke but have been exposed to it second-hand.
"There isn't a magic bullet to cure all forms of cancer, but we have the opportunity and the obligation to protect people from developing cancer wherever possible," Baldini said.
MY THOUGHTS
30 minutes of walking 5 times a week. that doesn't seem very hard. the harder part would be the change in eating and other habits. our busy lifestyles makes it difficult to avoid processed foods, oily take-outs and dinners from a can. but something has to give. it's not even an issue of living longer. it's an issue of what cancer can do to us and our loved ones.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Cancers You Can Ward Off with Exercise
7 Cancers You Can Ward Off with Exercise
Nov 12, 2010 | 3:53 PM ET | By Natasha Allen, MyHealthNewsDaily Contributor
A cancer diagnosis can be a devastating event — but some may also be preventable. In fact, an estimated half of all cancer deaths are avoidable by practicing healthy lifestyle habits, according to the American Cancer Society.
One of the most potent cancer-fighting weapons is exercise. While the benefits of a regular fitness program include keeping the pounds off, improving blood pressure and mental outlook, exercise can also halt the onset of some diseases. Several studies have shown that physical activity is linked with decreased risk of some cancers, particularly breast and colon cancer.
It is never too late to begin a fitness program, said Dr. Priscilla Furth, a professor of oncology at Georgetown University Medical Center's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.
"The good news is that it doesn't matter [when you begin], in that you will see a benefit from exercise at whatever age you are," Furth said.
Here are seven cancers that scientific research has shown can be stalled by exercise:
Endometrial cancer
Women who exercised for 150 minutes a week or more had a 34 percent lower risk of endometrial cancer (a cancer that begins in the lining of the uterus) than those who weren't active, researchers from the Yale School of Public Health reported this week at the Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Conference.
The researchers also found women with a body mass index (BMI) below 25 had a 73 percent reduced risk, compared with inactive women whose BMI was above 25. People with a BMI of over 25 are considered overweight.
Colorectal cancer
People who followed healthy lifestyle habits, including exercising for more than 30 minutes daily, lowered their risk of colorectal cancer, according to a study published online in October in the British Medical Journal.
In fact, 23 percent of colorectal cancers were preventable, had study participants adhered to the five lifestyle recommendations, according to researchers from the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen. The study was based on a survey of 55,489 men and women between the ages of 50 and 64, who were followed for almost a ten-year period.
Prostate cancer
Though several studies were inconclusive, some findings suggest a link between physical activity and a reduced risk of aggressive prostate cancer.
Men who had regular recreational exercise showed a lower risk of developing advanced prostate cancer or dying from the disease, compared with those who reported no physical activity, according to a 2006 study in the International Journal of Cancer. And a 2005 study of Chinese men in the European Journal of Epidemiology showed moderate exercise may shield against prostate cancer.
Furth advises personalizing an exercise routine. Pick an activity that you enjoy doing, then focus on intensity, she said.
"It is not so much what you are doing but how intense you're doing it," she said. "You can do some vigorous gardening, and you're out there working really hard, digging. Alternatively, you could be going out running so slowly you never even get you heart rate up."
Breast cancer
Women who had a family history of breast cancer reduced their risk by one-fourth by doing 20 minutes of moderate or vigorous physical activity at least five times a week, along with maintaining a healthy lifestyle in other ways, according to a study published in October in the journal Breast Cancer Research.
Even ex-couch potatoes can reap immediate anti-cancer rewards: postmenopausal women who gave up their sedentary ways and engaged in a moderate- to vigorous- intensity exercise program showed changes in hormone and protein levels consistent with a reduced risk of breast cancer, according to a study published online in February in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Some findings suggest that starting an exercise program during adolescence may delay the onset of breast cancer for women who may carry a mutation in their BRCA genes (which are associated with an increased risk for the disease), but it doesn't prevent the disease from developing, Furth said.
Lung cancer
Exercise may reduce the risk of lung cancer for current or former smokers.
University of Minnesota researchers gave questionnaires to 36,929 cancer-free women from Iowa, and followed the participants for 16 years. They found that women with high exercise levels were less likely to develop lung cancer than those who reported low exercise levels, according their 2006 study in the journal Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention.
And men and women who participated in moderate and vigorous activities showed a reduced of lung cancer, especially those with low or medium body mass index, and smokers, according to a 2003 study in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Ovarian cancer
Though additional studies are needed, some evidence suggests a link between exercise and a reduced risk of epithelial ovarian cancer (cancer that is found in the cells on the surface of the ovary). Women who engage in high-intensity activity most often had a reduced risk of invasive ovarian cancer compared to women who reported no regular physical activity, according to a study published in April in the journal Cancer Causes & Control.
Furth's advice to those beginning an exercise program: begin at a low intensity, and gradually work your way up to a moderate level. "What you are aiming for is a cardiovascular workout that really gets your pulse up and gets you sweating," she said.
Gastric cancer
People who reported at least a moderate level of recreational physical activity had a 50 percent reduced risk of gastric cancer, according to a 2008 study in the journal Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention.
People who did strenuous physical activity throughout their lifetime also had a decreased risk of incident stomach cancer, according to a 2007 study in the European Journal of Cancer. Cancer Care Ontario researchers found an estimated 20 to 40 percent reduced risk of stomach cancer in those who did strenuous exercise more than three times a week compared with those who exercised less than once a month.
Still, other studies are inconsistent about the link between gastric cancer risk and exercise, and differ in their results based on factors such as diet, body mass index and height.
MY THOUGHTS
if this won't make me move my butt (excuse my french!) then nothing could. fitness is certainly not for beauty only. it's nice to look nice. but it's a lot nicer to have a clean bill of health.
Nov 12, 2010 | 3:53 PM ET | By Natasha Allen, MyHealthNewsDaily Contributor
A cancer diagnosis can be a devastating event — but some may also be preventable. In fact, an estimated half of all cancer deaths are avoidable by practicing healthy lifestyle habits, according to the American Cancer Society.
One of the most potent cancer-fighting weapons is exercise. While the benefits of a regular fitness program include keeping the pounds off, improving blood pressure and mental outlook, exercise can also halt the onset of some diseases. Several studies have shown that physical activity is linked with decreased risk of some cancers, particularly breast and colon cancer.
It is never too late to begin a fitness program, said Dr. Priscilla Furth, a professor of oncology at Georgetown University Medical Center's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.
"The good news is that it doesn't matter [when you begin], in that you will see a benefit from exercise at whatever age you are," Furth said.
Here are seven cancers that scientific research has shown can be stalled by exercise:
Endometrial cancer
Women who exercised for 150 minutes a week or more had a 34 percent lower risk of endometrial cancer (a cancer that begins in the lining of the uterus) than those who weren't active, researchers from the Yale School of Public Health reported this week at the Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Conference.
The researchers also found women with a body mass index (BMI) below 25 had a 73 percent reduced risk, compared with inactive women whose BMI was above 25. People with a BMI of over 25 are considered overweight.
Colorectal cancer
People who followed healthy lifestyle habits, including exercising for more than 30 minutes daily, lowered their risk of colorectal cancer, according to a study published online in October in the British Medical Journal.
In fact, 23 percent of colorectal cancers were preventable, had study participants adhered to the five lifestyle recommendations, according to researchers from the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen. The study was based on a survey of 55,489 men and women between the ages of 50 and 64, who were followed for almost a ten-year period.
Prostate cancer
Though several studies were inconclusive, some findings suggest a link between physical activity and a reduced risk of aggressive prostate cancer.
Men who had regular recreational exercise showed a lower risk of developing advanced prostate cancer or dying from the disease, compared with those who reported no physical activity, according to a 2006 study in the International Journal of Cancer. And a 2005 study of Chinese men in the European Journal of Epidemiology showed moderate exercise may shield against prostate cancer.
Furth advises personalizing an exercise routine. Pick an activity that you enjoy doing, then focus on intensity, she said.
"It is not so much what you are doing but how intense you're doing it," she said. "You can do some vigorous gardening, and you're out there working really hard, digging. Alternatively, you could be going out running so slowly you never even get you heart rate up."
Breast cancer
Women who had a family history of breast cancer reduced their risk by one-fourth by doing 20 minutes of moderate or vigorous physical activity at least five times a week, along with maintaining a healthy lifestyle in other ways, according to a study published in October in the journal Breast Cancer Research.
Even ex-couch potatoes can reap immediate anti-cancer rewards: postmenopausal women who gave up their sedentary ways and engaged in a moderate- to vigorous- intensity exercise program showed changes in hormone and protein levels consistent with a reduced risk of breast cancer, according to a study published online in February in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Some findings suggest that starting an exercise program during adolescence may delay the onset of breast cancer for women who may carry a mutation in their BRCA genes (which are associated with an increased risk for the disease), but it doesn't prevent the disease from developing, Furth said.
Lung cancer
Exercise may reduce the risk of lung cancer for current or former smokers.
University of Minnesota researchers gave questionnaires to 36,929 cancer-free women from Iowa, and followed the participants for 16 years. They found that women with high exercise levels were less likely to develop lung cancer than those who reported low exercise levels, according their 2006 study in the journal Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention.
And men and women who participated in moderate and vigorous activities showed a reduced of lung cancer, especially those with low or medium body mass index, and smokers, according to a 2003 study in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Ovarian cancer
Though additional studies are needed, some evidence suggests a link between exercise and a reduced risk of epithelial ovarian cancer (cancer that is found in the cells on the surface of the ovary). Women who engage in high-intensity activity most often had a reduced risk of invasive ovarian cancer compared to women who reported no regular physical activity, according to a study published in April in the journal Cancer Causes & Control.
Furth's advice to those beginning an exercise program: begin at a low intensity, and gradually work your way up to a moderate level. "What you are aiming for is a cardiovascular workout that really gets your pulse up and gets you sweating," she said.
Gastric cancer
People who reported at least a moderate level of recreational physical activity had a 50 percent reduced risk of gastric cancer, according to a 2008 study in the journal Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention.
People who did strenuous physical activity throughout their lifetime also had a decreased risk of incident stomach cancer, according to a 2007 study in the European Journal of Cancer. Cancer Care Ontario researchers found an estimated 20 to 40 percent reduced risk of stomach cancer in those who did strenuous exercise more than three times a week compared with those who exercised less than once a month.
Still, other studies are inconsistent about the link between gastric cancer risk and exercise, and differ in their results based on factors such as diet, body mass index and height.
MY THOUGHTS
if this won't make me move my butt (excuse my french!) then nothing could. fitness is certainly not for beauty only. it's nice to look nice. but it's a lot nicer to have a clean bill of health.
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