• Oct18

    Why It Is So Confusing to Eat Right: the Case of Prostate Cancer and Milk.

    Posted in: Cancer, Common Conditions, Wellness and Health

    It’s no wonder people are confused about how to get what’s healthy on their plates.
    Sure, most people know
    *fruits/vegetables/beans/whole grains, good
    *Snicker Salad/deep-fried pickles/energy drinks and soda, bad

    But after that, then what? Take dairy, for example.

    It’s well-established that high dairy and calcium intake seem to increase the risk of prostate cancer. And high calcium intake especially may increase the risk of fatal prostate cancer.

    Not that dairy and calcium are all bad. Lowfat dairy is an important part of lowering blood pressure, it seems, and its Vitamin D prevents osteoporosis and hip fracture.

    But not all dairy is alike. And the distinctions are new.

    A new 70000+ men study shows that high fat dairy is protective against prostate cancer, and low fat dairy is not–and actually increases risk, for low grade tumors.

    Why might this be?

    It is not the calcium, vitamin D or other vitamins and minerals: they are the same in all dairy milk, and vitamin D is added at the dairy, not by the cow.

    Perhaps it is the hormones in whole milk, which are fat soluble. They are largely estrogens and progesterones. Other female hormones like those that release luteinizing hormone are modern hormonal pharmaceutical treatment for prostate cancer.

    When the fat is skimmed from the milk, you get nonfat milk. Perhaps what is left is androgenic, and promotes the growth of prostate cancer.

    Should baby boomers back off lowfat products, and start chugging whole fat bottles with the cream on top?

    This is why nutrition is confusing. It’s complicated!

    Here is what is easy: fill your plate half full with vegetables to start.

    Make sure you are enjoying what you are eating, and that you are really tasting it.

    And you will be on your way to preventing and controlling what ails you.

     
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  • May15

    Reduce Your Risk of Breast Cancer With What You Eat…But Who Eats Flavonoids and Lignans?

    Posted in: Cancer, Vitamins and Supplements, Wellness and Health

    If you are a postmenopausal woman, foods rich in flavonoids and lignans reduce your risk of developing the most common type of breast cancer by about 35 per cent.

    A new U.S. study of over 1400 women with breast cancer shows the power of food as medicine–in cancer.

    The most common breast cancer in the U.S. is estrogen receptor (ER) positive, progesterone receptor(PR) positive. This breast cancer was the type most reduced by flavonoids and lignans, but not by isoflavones (found in soy).

    Lignans are a type of carbohydrate that is part of the cell walls of plants. They are a weak estrogen, and act as anti-estrogens in the body.

    Flaxseed is the richest source of lignans, followed by sesame seed. Flax oil does not have lignans. Other good sources are pumpkin seeds, whole grains, cranberries and tea.

    Flavonoids are vitamin-like, often anti-estrogenic compounds, in specific foods. Flavonoids include many different types of compounds, such as flavonols and flavones and bright pigments.

    The USDA created an updated list of 393 foods with flavonoids.

    Top flavonoid foods are apples, apricots, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, cranberry juice, broccoli, cabbage, onions, lettuce, pears, black and pinto beans, parsley, tea and tomatoes.

    Women with the highest flavonol intake (average 15.2 milligrams per day) had a breast cancer risk reduction by 46 per cent, versus women with just 3.7 mg/day of flavonols.

    The same was true for flavones (39 per cent), flavan-3-ols (26 per cent), and lignans (31 per cent).

    Eat the foods, and you’ll get the phytonutrients!

     
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  • Apr10

    Does Overweight Cause Breast Cancer? And If So, How Much and When?

    Posted in: Cancer, Obesity and Weight Loss

    Weight loss during pregnancy and at menopause have different effects on breast cancer risk, and on you.

    Eating for two feels like a joyous thing…eating because you’re 52 feels out of control. And your body is.

    How much you gain during your first pregnancy is irrelevant for breast cancer: no correlation.

    But weight gain between that pregnancy and menopause? Very risky.

    A 70 percent increased risk if you gain 60 pounds instead of 20 pounds, this study shows

    It’s not how much you weigh–it’s how much you gain. That’s a 4 percent increase in risk for each 11 poinds gained.

    If you’re young and overweight you have an advantage from this perspective. But if you want to change your risk, you can.

    The known risk factors for breast cancer are family history, obesity, more than one drink daily, no biological kids, and long term homone replacement.

    Less well-known: weight gain after menopause and before menopause.

    Not a risk: how much you weigh at menarche (beginning your periods), or how much you weigh at first pregnancy, or at age 20.

    To reduce your risk, learn to eat well. Lose weight with a doctor who can help you keep it off, not just offer a quick fix.

    And start early: don’t wait for menopause to take care of yourself..

     
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  • Jan25

    Does Eating Iron-Heavy Foods Cause Heart Disease in Women?

    Posted in: Cancer, Common Conditions, Vitamins and Supplements, Wellness and Health

    Yes, apparently, it does.

    Harvard scientists studied 6161 women with type II diabetes over 20 years. The ones with the highest iron intake had the most heart attacks and cardiac bypasses and deaths—by 50% over the women with the lowest intake of iron.

    Diabetics are already at an increased risk for heart disease, but eating red meat and its extra iron puts them at greater risk.

    The iron in red meat is better absorbed—more bioavailable–than the iron from beans and vegetables, because it is heme iron.

    Women who eat the most red meat are already at higher breast cancer risk.
    Heme Iron From Diet

    But these women ate foods with less fiber and less vitamin C, and more saturated fat than women with fewer cardiac events, as we say.

    The primary source of iron in the S.A.D. (Standard American Diet) is red meat (beef, lamb, veal and pork, which is the other white meat only to its PR firm).

    Choose other great sources of protein: organically raised beans and lentils, even nut butters…especially almond.

    Internal organ meats are especially high in iron: liver, kidney and sweetbreads, which are actually adrenal glands, which make hormones, which, well, you don’t want to know.

    Here is a simple list of foods highest in iron and their absorption.
    Here is a complete list of foods, foods highest in iron first.

    Whether you are a man or a postmenopausal woman, look for a multivitamin without iron.

    If you are a premenopausal woman, unless you are iron-deficient and anemic, you usually do not need to supplement your diet with iron.

     
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  • Nov25

    The Tasty MD: Why the Mediterranean Diet Reduces Risk for Alzheimer's, Heart Disease and Stroke

    Posted in: Cancer, Obesity and Weight Loss, Wellness and Health

    Eat, drink and be healthy–the Mediterranean Diet (MD) seems to be good for everything, even if you’re not European: Alzheimer’s disease risk was cut by 68 percent in a U.S. study of a Mediterranean Diet, US-style.

    But what is the real MD? And why does it work?

    It is rich in liquid fats and not in solid fats. Liquid fats lower inflammation and CRP, and inflammation probably leads to atherosclerosis (heart attack, stroke and impotence), some cancers and perhaps, Alzheimer’s…in fact, all causes of mortality.

    But olive oil is easy– in 2004, even the FDA approved a health claim for olive oil for preventing coronary heart disease.

    The Mediterranean Diet is actually a pattern of eating fish, a little dairy and meat, and many different plants. One group studied 127 locally consumed wild or semi-wild plants showed high antioxidant activity in “Berberis vulgaris, Reichardia picroides, Scandix australis, Satureja montana, Thymus piperella, Lythrum salicaria and Vitis vinifera.”

    Translated, that’s the common barberry, common brighteyes, a daisy-relative, winter savory, wild thyme, purple loosestrife, and European wine grapes.

    Great flavors, strong science, waiting manufacturers, hungry dieters, an evening passagiata…it’s a perfect formula for commercial success. And companies who want to achieve will create better and greater success than any diet guidelines or sanctioned pyramid.

    But look out for the Mediterranean Twinkies and Wheat Thins. They’re coming too!

     
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