Do Healthy Diets Really Prevent Cancer?

I have great respect for Dr. Willet but am really perplexed how the chairman of the nutrition department at Harvard could believe that diet does not influence cancer.

My guess is that much of the uncertainty is related to the incredible confusion most health professionals have about diet. For many decades they actually believed that everyone should be on a low-fat diet to stay healthy.

Well of course if you design a study with that as a major premise you will get muddied results.

Another confusing variable with respect to fat would be many health professionals' continued insistence that saturated fat is unhealthy for you when the opposite is exactly true. Then until very recently there was massive denial about the dangers of trans fat and advocating margarine instead of butter.

Fortunately, most are out of that delusion now, but not enough time has elapsed to actually perform many studies documenting this association.

Unfortunately, an area where nearly everyone is still in massive denial is the influence of sugar on cancer. Even though a Nobel Prize was awarded to a German physician, Dr. Warburg, in the '30s for recognizing this, coming up on a century later very few physicians have applied this basic concept.

Most likely sugar increases cancer risk through raising insulin levels.

So I guess it isn't too surprising after all to understand why Dr. Willet might be confused on the literature on this topic, as so much of it is based on flawed premises.

Fortunately, you can take some basic action now and radically reduce your risk of cancer by applying the following lifestyle recommendations.

1.      Control your insulin levels: Make certain that you limit your intake of processed foods and sugars as much as possible.

2.      Get appropriate amounts of animal-based omega-3 fats, and make sure you use cod liver oil if you don't have regular access to sun exposure.

3.      Get appropriate exercise. One of the primary reasons exercise works is that it drives your insulin levels down. Controlling insulin levels is one of the most powerful ways to reduce your cancer risks.

4.      Normalize your vitamin D levels with safe amounts of sun exposure. This works primarily by optimizing your vitamin D level. If you have regular access to sun exposure then you should use fish oil, not cod liver oil, as your primary source of omega-3 fats. Ideally, it would be best to monitor your vitamin D levels.

5.      Eat according to your nutritional type. The potent anti-cancer effects of this principle are very much underappreciated. When we treat cancer patients in our clinic this is one of the most powerful anti-cancer strategies we have.

6.      Have a tool to permanently erase the neurological short-circuiting that can activate cancer genes. Even the CDC states that 85 percent of disease is caused by emotions. It is likely that this factor may be more important than all the other physical ones listed here, so make sure this is addressed. Energy psychology seems to be one of the best approaches and my particular favorite tool, as you may know, is the Emotional Freedom Technique.

7.      Only 25 percent of people eat enough vegetables, so by all means eat as many vegetables as you are comfortable with. Ideally, they should be fresh and organic. However, please understand that, frequently, fresh conventionally grown vegetables are healthier than organic ones that are older and wilted in the grocery store. They are certainly better than no vegetables at all, so don't use that as an excuse. If you are a carb nutritional type you may need up to 300 percent more vegetables than a protein nutritional type.

8.      Make sure you are not in the two-thirds of the population who are overweight and maintain an ideal body weight.

9.      Get enough high-quality sleep.

10.  Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, household chemical cleaners, synthetic air fresheners and air pollution.

11.  Boil, poach or steam your foods, rather than frying or charbroiling them.