Anyone who has been in gardening store knows the smell of synthetic artificial pesticides…it wafts into your nose and head as you are walking down the aisle towards the potting soil. That’s herbicide Roundup Ready, and its ilk, and there are now weeds and other plants that are resistant.
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May10
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Mar24
The recent Harvard/Kaiser study showing saturated fat not causing heart disease and the WHO review of similar data showing it does, and a third showing polyunsaturated fat replacing saturated fat –is a good place to come to our senses, nutritionally and literally.
People eat food, not fat, protein, carbohydrate or alcohol. No food has all one type of fat, whether saturated, monounsaturated or poly (trans fats are a type of poly). And many fats are good.
So what food should you eat? It depends on what condition you are trying to prevent or avoid.
For example, if you are trying to prevent recurrence of metastatic colon cancer, avoid processed meats and grains and eat whole foods: you have a 3.5x better chance than the opposite approach.
If you have prostate cancer, avoid chicken with skin and eggs but not skinless poultry and other meats: you have 2x chance of avoiding recurrence and metastases. More in my ChefMD culinary medicine book.
If you’re just trying to stay healthy and have a great quality of life, then what?
Foods with trans fat, which occurs rarely in nature, and highly refined sugars and starches, are the ones to avoid. They are inflammatory, interrupt immunity, cause stroke and heart attack. Especially if you see trans/partially hydrogenated on a label, put the can, bottle or box back (pie shells, coffee creamer, pastries), and back away. In fact, put down the cans, boxes and bottles as much as you can, regardless.
Try to use your senses: smell, touch, feel, hear, truly taste your meals…you’ll have a great time. And eat more of the right foods.
Eat real food. Make it yourself. Buy foods in their natural state, with minimal processing. Learn to cook, even a little.
Don’t worry about every bite. Enjoy it more. Eat a lot more vegetables, fruits (avocado is a fruit!) and legumes, and make fish, poultry, cheese and a little (grass-fed) red meat side dishes. Stay liquid in your fats, low in your sugars and starches, and lean in your meats, but don’t kill yourself doing it.
Love what you eat. Or don’t eat it.
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Dec9
Food as medicine wins again…against cancer.
Sure, it’s just reduced recurrence of cancer (just like the treatment of metastatic colon cancer, with the Standard American Diet (SAD) causing 3.5x recurrence vs a prudent diet). But lots of my food as medicine patients never want to see their cancer, or lost weight again.
A new Chinese breast cancer diet study in JAMA shows that soy foods dropped the risk of death by as much as 10.3% and recurrence rates by as much as 11.2% over 4 years: a little soy protein (less than 5 grams per day!) was almost as effective as a lot (over 15 grams per day).
In China, soy is “10% or more of daily protein intake…the average isoflavone intake is 47 mg/d versus 1 to 6 mg/d in the United States.”
Which foods have the most isoflavones? Whole and minimally processed ones.
“Asian populations tend to consume traditional, whole soy foods such as cooked soybeans, edamame, tofu, miso, and soy milk. In contrast, soy supplements, meat analogs made with soy, and various processed foods with isoflavones are consumed in the United States, but these foods may have lower levels of isoflavones.”
And that, in a soybean pod, is the crux of the food issue for soy in breast cancer treatment. Enjoy soy foods. Any amount. Mostly whole. (apologies to Michael Pollan).
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Oct13
Turmeric and Culinary Medicine
Posted in: Cancer, Common Conditions
Filled with flavor, anti-inflammatories and in every yellow curry in the book, turmeric is not just for mustard coloring any more.
In fact, culinary medicine–the art of cooking blended with the science of medicine– is one of the great bargains of our time. That’s essential in these times where value seems gone and security is scarce. And it’s as easy as learning a little about cooking, about what’s in your food, and what it can do for you. See my ChefMD’s Big Book of Culinary Medicine for more.
For example, in a recent treatment study, the spice turmeric had effects on cytokine levels and on enzymes in some pancreatic cancer patients. Not the same as a remission, but on the way.
Turmeric was safe and there were no side effects. One patient had a brief remission. Curcumin–the active ingredient inside–has promise. But curcumin is not well absorbed–it has poor bioavailability. The subjects took 8 grams per day for 18 months.
Bioavailability just means “body-ready”. The body has to absorb the curcumin for it to attack cancer cells. It’s a term I apply to food…not just pharmacology.
I wonder if they know what so many Indians do—add black pepper to their curry. Not just because it tastes good. But it also happens to improve the body-readiness of curcumin. Why? It’s the piperine in black pepper. Piperine gives black and white pepper pep; stimulates pancreatic digestive enzymes; and increases absorption, perhaps as a result of its effect on the ultrastructure of intestinal brush border.
By the way, turmeric is a rhizome (an above-ground root), like ginger. And it looks like ginger: fingers of bright yellow goodness grated into Indian dishes, or dried into a powder.
The next scientific step is a randomized, controlled trial of not just safety, but real effectiveness. And though these patients took curcumin in a pill, you can get it every day in the spice turmeric, and in every yellow curry, and some mustards (it’s used for coloring).
By the way, curcumin is best known for its potential to reduce inflammation and the risk of Alzheimer’s: India consumes most of the world’s turmeric and has one of the lowest rates of Alzheimer’s.
Read the entrance criteria and the full abstract. And try my ChefMD Coconut Milk Curried Shrimp with Turmeric with free video, nutrition data and extra value!
