Nutrition matters

Nurse Practitioner, Apr 2000

Want to cut your cancer risk by as much as 40%? Eat right, stay physically active, and maintain a healthy weight. As many as 375,000 cases of cancer, at current cancer rates, could be prevented each year in the United States through healthy dietary choices alone. .-'' A simple change, such as eating the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables each day, could by itself reduce cancer rates more than 20%.

Less food, less cancer?

Not long ago, kids who were a little on the plump side were considered healthy. But in today's world of junk food and empty calories, that extra weight means an increased risk of developing cancer.

Working from data gathered in England and Scotland from 1937 to 1939, British researchers studied the diets of nearly 4,000 children. Then they compared that information with their health status as adults.

They found that the children who ate fewer calories faced a smaller risk of developing cancers unrelated to smoking when they became adults. The likelihood of dying from these cancers was two times greater for the children who consumed the most calories. For each added 250 calories a day, the risk of dying of cancer rose by 20%.

Other research in humans and animals has shown a similar connection between eating less and a reduced cancer risk. Overweight people have higher rates of several types of cancer than those of normal weights. In the animal world, rats given a restricted diet of one-third fewer calories live significantly longer than those allowed to eat freely.

In line with recommendations for adults, researchers suggest that kids should eat more fruits and vegetables and reduce their intake of high-calorie foods, such as ice cream, cookies, chips, french fries, and hamburgers.

Making smart choices

Cancer can be a preventable disease, says the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR), and our dietary choices play a key role in helping protect us against the disease.

The AICR and the World Cancer Research Fund assembled a panel of 15 world-renowned researchers to study the relationship between diet and cancer. The resulting report, "Food, Nutrition and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective," provides an analysis based on thousands of research studies, examines the relationship between dietary factors and 18 specific cancers, offers new dietary guidelines for cancer prevention, and makes public policy recommendations to help make cancer prevention an achievable goal. This report examines diet and cancer prevention from an international perspective, a vital subject in light of increasing cancer incidence rates in developing nations.

The AICR's general diet and health guidelines ore:

1. Choose a diet rich in a variety of plant-based foods.

2. Eat plenty of vegetables and fruits.

3. Maintain a healthy weight and be physically active.

4. Drink alcohol in moderation, if at all.

5. Select foods low in fat and salt.

6. Prepare and store foods safely.

7. Don't smoke or use tobacco in any form.

Mix up those fruits and vegetables

Study after study has shown that fruits and vegetables contain compounds that help boost the body's natural defenses against cancer. The National Cancer Institute recommends eating a daily minimum of five sennings of vegetables and fruit. In general, at least two-thirds of the food on every plate should be from plants. The remainder should he proteins: lean meat, poultry, fish, and low-fat dairy products.

Eating the same thing every day seriously diminishes our access to needed vitamins. Eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables strengthens the body's disease-fighting power.

"Most of us eat the same foods over and over, but `an apple a day' doesn't provide the same protection as eating an apple, a banana, a grapefruit, kiwifruit, grapes, and a mango over a period of 2 days," says Melanie R. Polk, R.D., director of nutrition education at the American Institute for Cancer Research. "Each plant protects in a different way--some disrupt the formation of tumors, others help remove carcinogens from cells, some affect hormones."

Cancer-fighting power of mushrooms

Many people aren't aware of the variety of nutrients available in a mushroom. This abundant fungus-which is low in fat and calories-is a rich source of minerals, vitamin D (ergosterol), thiamin (B1), riboflavin (B2), and niacin (B3) as well as essential amino acids.

In Japan, the medicinal contributions of mushrooms are well known. Reishi, shiitake, and maitake mushrooms all enhance immune function and appear to have significant cancer-fighting properties. In fact, three dif ferent anticancer drugs extracted from mushrooms have been approved by the Health and Welfare Ministry, the Japanese equivalent of the U.S. FDA, These three are lentinan, derived from shiitake; schizophyllan, derived from suehirotake; and PSK, derived from kawaratake. PSK, which is sold in Europe and Japan, is the best-selling cancer drug in the world. In Japan, only 30% of cancer treatment includes radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery.

While human trials with mushroom-based treatments haven't been conducted in the United States, including mushrooms in your daily diet seems to be one more way to fight cancer.