Anti-Cancer Diets, eating for preventions
By Dr Julian Kenyan Director The Dove Clinic for Integrated Medicine, Winchester & London

A range of cancer diets is available ranging from the most extreme, the Gerson type diet, to less rigorous approaches. In the following paragraphs a 'middle of the road' anti-cancer diet is described.

Two main effects of these diets are firstly, they are relatively toxin free if the foods are organic and secondly, they tend to alkalinise body fluids. Cancer cells have a metabolism which involves glycolosis, which makes the cancer cells produce lactic acid. Therefore, the acid alkaline balance in cancer cells and around them, is biased towards the alkaline side.

The normal acid-alkaline balance in the body, expressed as a pH value is around 7.3. The pH around cancer cells can be as low as 6.0. It has been found that anything that pushes the body's pH in the alkaline direction helps to stop cancer cell growth. There are certain foods in our western diet that produce high acid residues, particularly animal protein, most markedly red meats, refined sugars, sucrose, and wheat. Fish is much less of a problem. Oily fish in particular is helpful.

On following this diet you may well help prevent cancer, though there is no clinical trail evidence to show this, but there's a lot of epidemiological evidence to support this supposition.

An anti-cancer diet is one that is as close to nature as possible, without additives and undue processing.

Eat 5 portions of fresh fruit and vegetables daily, unless you have advanced cancer; in which case, veer towards 5 portions of vegetables and low fruit. (The fruit sugar can feed the cancer).

Do not fry food. Grill or steam.

Avoid red meat, and meat in general if possible, unless game or organic.

Eat fish, oily in particular, such as mackerel, herring, wild salmon, tuna and sardines.

Avoid smoked foods.

Eat dairy foods in moderation.

Do not exceed 40 grams of protein a day. More than this will severely tax the liver's detoxification systems and promote conditions favourable to cancer. However, if you are suffering from a hormonal cancer, such as Breast or Prostate Cancer, you would be very strongly advised to give up all dairy produce altogether, including beef, with the possible exception of organic eggs.

A very compelling case for a direct causal link between milk and its products, and breast and prostate cancer, has been made, after a scientific review of all the evidence to date, by Professor Jane Plant, herself a remarkable survivor of 5 recurrences of advanced breast cancer.

Keep the total percentage of fat in the diet below 25%, if possible, (do not exceed 30%). Understand that there are good fats and bad fats. The only oils you should use in cooking are cold-pressed olive oil, canola oil and a little butter, and for salads, olive oil, sesame, flax, pumpkin, walnut and hazelnut oils. Discard all other oils, and margarines.

Avoid hydro-genated fats in biscuits, cakes, crisps etc. These fats actually block the keys, which enable your body to utilise essential fatty acids, or good fats. (95% of the population are deficient in essential fatty acids). You can improve your good fat intake by supplementing with 3000mg or more up to 5000mg daily of fish oil, or 2/3 tablespoons of flaxoil. These contain Omega-3 fatty acids which have been demonstrated to retard the progress of cancer quite significantly and help prevent cachexia, the wasting associated with cancer.

Add soy products to your diet, on a daily basis. These include soy sauce, miso soup/paste, tofu, tempeh, soya milk, and yoghurt; the latter two, and tofu, are excellent dairy substitutes. However, it is strongly advisable to avoid soy in over-processed forms, such as TVP, 'mince', burgers, sausages etc. The processing involved actually adds high levels of carcinogens 'nitrosamines' and toxic metals to such soy products. Apart from lowering cholesterol and being an excellent source of protein, soy contains isoflavones. Isoflavones are anti-angiogenic, that is they can interfere with the process by which tumours establish a life-line and grow.

Drink Miso broth, or make miso soup daily, particularly if you are undergoing radiotherapy. According to Japanese research, miso contains a chelating agent which can remove heavy metals and radioactive matter from the body. Miso is said to have protected doctors working at Ground Zero in Nagasaki from radiation sickness. For further protection from the side effects of radiation, post-therapy, make frequent use of seaweed in soups, salads, casseroles, dips etc. Good seaweeds to try are Icelandic Kelp, Nori, Arame, Hiziki, Dulse, Wakame.

Juicing, if you can do it, is a wonderful way of really concentrating good nutrition in an easy format. But if you are losing weight rapidly, puree instead.

Wherever possible, eat organic produce.

Do not add sugar or salt to food.

Avoid coffee. Drink plenty of water, mineral, or filtered, green tea without milk, (to avoid inactivating the therapeutic ingredients) ' a November 1999 letter to Nature Medicine suggests that drinking about 4/5 cups of green tea daily may slow metastic tumour growth by up to 50% -; herb teas, such as Pau D'Arco, Essiac, Cats Claw, Dandelion etc., and diluted fresh fruit juices, or better still concentrated fresh vegetable juices.

We have a range of recipes as part of this dietary approach and for patient who have good deal of wasting (cachexia). These can be downloaded from our website www.doveclinic.com