Plants and Cancer

Have you ever heard of the China Study? It was a study of the nutritional, lifestyle and disease characteristics of thousands of people in rural China over a period of seven years.

What it found was that the rural Chinese people who lived active lifestyles – through hard work – and subsisted on plant-based diets had lower rates of chronic illness and better health than people subsisting on western diets.

The study was widely condemned by both the mainstream and even among some alternative health practitioners for a variety of reasons. But its findings are in line with my years of research and experience on the benefits of healthy, whole-food diets. To me, it overwhelmingly proved that increasing the consumption of plants protects against cancer in today’s world, period.

I would guess it’s because you decrease fat, which stores toxins and creates acidity, but also you increase mineral intake greatly the more plants you eat.

And now new research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham confirms it yet again. Cancer researchers there found that a plant-based diet heavy in cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, collards, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, etc.) affected aggressive breast cancer cells in a way that made them more likely to respond to treatment. Researchers also learned that a compound in green tea also created changes in cancerous genes.

Breast cancers are divided into two types: estrogen receptor-positive and estrogen receptor-negative. The ER negative cancers are the most aggressive and least affected by traditional cancer treatments. But compounds found in vegetables and green tea both stimulate changes that turn ER negative cancers into ER positive, making them more treatable.

“One way we can use epigenetics (the study of biological mechanism that switch genes on and off) as a powerful tool to fight cancer is through compounds found in our everyday diet,” UAB resarcher Trygve Tollefsbol said. “Vegetables, for example, are filled with these types of compounds. Your mother always told you to eat your vegetables, and science now tells us she was right.”

Of course, I have been saying this very thing for many years. Whole foods (fruits and vegetables, especially eaten raw) every day will keep the doctor away. If more Americans ate their fruits and vegetables, as their mothers told them growing up, there would be much less disease and obesity.

Vegetables are live foods that foster life and health by providing fiber, phytonutrients, antioxidants and promoting an alkaline state in the body. They help the body fight disease, eliminate free radicals, reduce the chances of developing cancer and end digestive problems.

The experts say to eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. I say five’s not nearly enough.

Except for the air you breathe, what you eat and drink is what makes up your whole body and makes it run. If you fill your body with junk, expect it to turn into junk. But if you want to keep your body out of the junkyard, try using a little common-sense discipline in what you put into your mouth.

There are lots of choices and variety that you can enjoy even with a healthy diet. Health, youthfulness, vigor, beauty, productivity and long life are the result of a correct diet and correct living habits. The wrong diet results in acidity, disease, suffering, failure in life, misery and an early grave.

Body acidity is the main cause of disease and must be neutralized or we will die young, no matter whether we are doctors or patients. Acid foods are death foods. Death is the end result of acid accumulation.

We must learn what acid foods are and leave them alone. At the same time, we must learn that we require an alkaline diet for health, vigor, efficiency, youthfulness and a long life.

Strive to eat at least 80 percent alkaline foods and no more than 20 percent acid foods. Assuming you’ve been eating something like the typical American diet, it will take a period of adjustment to get your body to a healthy alkaline/acid balance. During that time, you should temporarily avoid or at least drastically limit eating acid-forming foods like meat, fish, poultry, eggs, cheese, fats, white bread, starchy foods, cakes, pastry, candy, white sugar and confections.

These foods are not all necessarily faulty, but they should never be consumed in proportions far beyond the requirements for body need. Pay attention to portions. Eat what you need but no more.

Alkaline foods are whole foods. Your diet should be primarily organic fruits and vegetables (mostly raw), especially dark green leafy vegetables like kale, mustard greens, collard greens, Swiss chard, watercress, spinach and arugula; other green vegetables like romaine, bok choy, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, broccoli, string beans, snow peas and green peas; non-green but nutrient-rich vegetables like beets, eggplant, mushrooms, onions, radishes, bean sprouts, red and yellow bell peppers, radicchio, cauliflower, tomatoes, artichokes and raw carrots.

Beans — fresh and dried — and raw nuts are also alkaline.

If you feel you must eat meat, stick to meat from free-range animals that have not been fed genetically modified foods or subjected to antibiotics and hormones. Keep your meat diet heavy on fish consumption, but not farm-raised; those animals usually have been fed GMOs and heavily medicated.

Almost everything you find in the center aisles of the grocery stores are acid foods. This includes all processed foods and foods containing hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup. Soft drinks are particularly acidic and should be avoided at all cost.

An alkaline diet is a key to health for all ages, but especially for seniors. And finally, drink plenty of water. Water flushes our systems of acid. Seniors, particularly, drink too little water. That speeds up the buildup of acid and hastens death.

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