HOW FOODS CAN AFFECT CANCER

n this weeks Time Magazine, there is a great article entitled, "How Foods Can Affect Cancer" by Andrew Weil, MD. Dr. Weil covers what alternative doctors like myself and health conscious individuals have been saying for years; Eliminate red meat from your diet and choose soy based foods such as Isoflavone rich tempeh and tofu instead. If you want to avoid cancer you should probably read on....


Dr. Andrew Weil goes on in this article to discuss the latest findings from a study done by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and what they found was that women (Asian-American) who ate a lot of soy-based foods as children, adolescents and adults reduced their chances of developing hormone dependent breast cancer. Reductions of breast cancer by 58% were observed in the group that ate the most soy in childhood (ages 5-11) while a 25% reduction was noted in the adolescent and adult group.

Pretty impressive....Yes? Of course it is! So when shopping, opt for the soy milk instead of the dairy based milk which can contain unsavory added growth hormones which contribute to hormone fueled breast cancers. And for the Men....Dr. Weil (as do I) recommends that these same Isoflavone rich foods can lower the risk of prostate cancer.

As for the red meat and why you should just say no to it, take a look at a large population study done on more than 90,000 nurses. This report published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that the risk of estrogen and progesterone receptive positive breast cancer increased most in nurses who ate the most red meat. Dr. Weil goes on to cite from the study that women who ate more than 1.5 servings of red meat a day had nearly double the risk, compared with those who ate fewer servings a week. The authors of this study theorize that the red meat causes cancer by:

1) Delivers too much iron in a form that promotes cancer
2) Carcinogens form in meat as it is cooked
3) Hormones contained in conventionally raised beef