Five Food Items To Consider For Reducing Cancer Risk

The human body is a complicated machine and each part resonates with every other part. A good diet, a good night’s sleep and avoidance of an unhealthy lifestyle - as much as it may sound like your mother’s advice - is indeed very good advice. The scientific research connecting a healthy lifestyle to reducing cancer risk continues to grow, and there are some specific food choices that are proving themselves in scientific research. Here’s a look at five foods to consider incorporating into your healthy lifestyle to reduce your cancer risk.

Garlic

Garlic is one of the most widely cultivated and consumed herbs in the world. It’s also among the most medicinally active substances consumed by people the world over, with documented antimicrobial, antithrombotic, and anticancer activity. The gustatory pleasure derived from spices and pungent plants like onions, leeks, and garlic may derive, in part, from the evolutionary advantages that regular consumption of these foods imparted. There is significant scientific and clinical data that support the use of garlic as a medicinal food.

One key thing to note is that we must consume fresh garlic over the other preparations. The aged garlic extracts, dried garlic and garlic oil preparations lack the most important chemical constituent of all – allicin, which is the component that gives garlic its characteristic odor.

There was a recent study published in the Journal of Cancer Prevention Research by investigators in China compared the outcome of patients with lung cancer who consumed fresh garlic against those who did not. In the study of 1,424 lung cancer patients there was a 44 percent reduction of the risk of lung cancer for non-smokers. Even among smoking patients the risk of lung cancer was reduced by 30 percent. 

It is for this reason that I have, over the past two decades, urged my patients, family and friends to consume fresh garlic as a foodstuff. 

Nuts

Almonds, cashews and walnuts, along with many other kinds of nuts, are all much more than just a tasty protein-packed snack. There has long been a correlation between nut consumption and health, and the research supporting that is both strong and broad based. Not only are nuts a good choice to reduce cardiovascular disease, but the consumption of nuts has been shown to be highly beneficial to reducing cancer risk.

The majority of the calories in nuts come from lipids (fats), including monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats like oleic acid (like you will find in olive oil). Of the nuts commonly consumed the highest lipid content is in macadamia nuts, followed by peanuts, pecans, cashews, walnuts, pine nuts, hazel nuts, pistachios, almonds and chestnuts.  There are also a number of micronutrients found in nuts including flavonoids, calcium, iron, B6 and magnesium, among others.

In light of the fat avoidance diets where health-conscious individuals are encouraged to eat grains and carbohydrates, today we recognize the important benefits of lipids, finding that higher fat, high-protein diets are gaining traction over the older food pyramid. Findings show that high carbohydrate intake may in part be responsible for many contemporary maladies suggesting that the agrarian revolution of 10,000 years ago that made high calorie/low fiber grains readily available may ultimately prove to have been more a curse than a blessing.

Organic Milk

As with nut consumption, we may need to re-evaluate many long-held beliefs regarding dietary health as it relates to drinking milk. Many people are familiar with omega-3 fatty acids as constituents of fish, but organic milk is also a great source of omega-3 fatty acids. The term omega-3 actually refers to three types of fats commonly found in the diet among them ALA (alpha linolenic acid), EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid).

While EPA and DHA are found mostly in fish, ALA is the principal vegetable source of Omega-3.

Organic milk production entails grazing cows that consume grass while conventional milk is produced using corn feed with the cows often being barn-raised or confined. We now know that it is the grass consumption that provides the ALA Omega-3 and the higher fat content in whole milk over skim provides the highest quantity of omega-3 of all.

In recent decades, the consumption of milk has fallen in the U.S., in part because of pediatricians’ recommendations that children be converted to nonfat milk, as they grow older. The concerns regarding dietary fat intake and obesity led many to eschew whole milk in favor of low or non-fat alternatives, yet the data supporting these restrictions is far from established.

Omega-3s are essential fatty acids that must be consumed in the diet. Whole milk consumption is now rising faster than other dairy product, so maybe consumers have already realized that the "bloom is off the rose" for low fat goods.

Wine and Grape Extracts

Let’s consider Vitis vinifera, the grape from which wine is produced. The phenols in red wine include simple phenols like gallic acid, as well as the stilbenes, flavonoids and anthocyanins. The polyphenols of red wine have antioxidant properties, can dilate blood vessels via nitric oxide production, and can also inhibit blood clotting, in addition to reducing inflammation. Based on these properties, red wine has long been associated with a decline in prostate cancer and are superior to many other alcoholic beverages in that regard.

In addition to wine, for many years, naturopaths and health-conscious individuals have recommended the consumption of grape seed extracts. Chemical analyses of grape seeds have provided a treasure trove of active ingredients that are potent antioxidants and there is reason to believe that they may have meaningful health benefits, including reducing cancer risk.

Chocolate

The final food for consideration is chocolate – the extract of Theobroma cacao. Originating in Mayan and Aztec cultures, xocolatl, as it was known, was harvested, fermented, dried and roasted to produce cocoa mass – a mixture of cocoa butter and cocoa solid. Brought to Europe by Columbus in 1502, chocolate was considered a luxury, available only to the wealthy. The composition of chocolate reveals 54 percent cocoa butter, 11 percent protein, up to 10 percent fiber, another 10 percent organic acids with a small amount of theobromine and caffeine. It is the polyphenolic content of the chocolate, constituting 12 to 18 percent of the dry weight that provides some of its most healthful features. Not surprisingly, dark chocolate – 59 percent cocoa solid – is the healthiest. The properties of chocolate include the inhibition of the cancer-promoting enzyme telomerase, induction of apoptosis, and decrease of NF-kB (a potent mediator of inflammation.) It’s long been known that inflammation is closely associated with cancer and that chocolate’s anti-inflammatory properties may be important in cancer prevention.

So, sit down with a glass of red wine, be generous with the garlic, organic milk and nuts in your recipes and enjoy a nice dark chocolate dessert. There are sophisticated, bona fide benefits in these simple foods.  For more insights into these food items and other information on reducing your cancer risk, visit www.nagourneycancerinstitute.com.

About Dr. Robert Nagourney

Dr. Robert Nagourney has been internationally recognized as a pioneer in cancer research and personalized cancer treatment for over 20 years. Among his many accomplishments, as co-investigator on national cooperative trials, Dr. Nagourney is recognized for the introduction of Cisplatin/Gemcitabine doublets in the treatment of advanced ovarian and breast cancers.  

He is the founder and medical director of Nagourney Cancer Institute (formerly Rational Therapeutics) and Clinical Professor at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine.

Also, he is a practicing oncologist and triple board certified in Internal Medicine, Medical Oncology and Hematology. With more than 20 years experience in human tumor primary culture analyses, Dr. Nagourney has authored more than 100 manuscripts, book chapters and abstracts including publications in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Gynecologic Oncology, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and British Journal of Cancer. In March 2013, his book OUTLIVING CANCER was released by Basic Health Publications.  Outliving Cancer is Dr. Nagourney's story of discovery, the biology of cancer and how best to treat it.