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Fighting
cancer with food |
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Gordon Haggans will be the first to tell you his eating habits weren’t the best before he was diagnosed last year with cancer. He loved his beer, steaks and hot dogs, potatoes with lots of butter and, of course, pizza. Plant-based foods (vegetables and fruits) as a diet staple were far from important, and whole-grain breads didn’t enter his mind. Then came the wake-up call: prostate cancer. The prognosis was excellent, but the 49-year-old Milford plumbing salesman knew it was time to make a drastic change or else. Low-fat became the watchword in the Haggans household. And his wife Maureen, whose family history includes breast and lung cancer, joined him in his quest for a healthier lifestyle that included regular exercise, no more chocolate or red meat and plenty of oranges, broccoli, salads and seafood. |
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“I had high blood pressure and high cholesterol before I was diagnosed with cancer, so my cardiologist was attacking me, too,” Haggans says. “I was an idiot. I thought I had to have this and that food, but I’ve learned that I don’t.” The good news today is that incidences of cancer and death rates for all cancers combined are decreasing for the first time in 20 years. Nevertheless, the American Institute for Cancer Research reports that 1.4 million new cases will be diagnosed this year, and that one out of every four deaths in the United States is cancer-related. One of every two men, and one of every three women, now has a lifetime risk of developing some form of cancer. Does this mean the population at large should give up and await its fate? Absolutely not, according to a report recently released by a panel of 15 of the world’s leading researchers on diet and cancer. “Food, Nutrition and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective” focused on foods and diets for the first time and issued new dietary guidelines for cancer prevention. Mom was right Not surprisingly, the guidelines include all the things your mother taught you when you were growing up (eat your carrots so your eyes will be stronger), but with a big difference: While mom was always urging kids to eat their roast beef, cancer researchers today recommend far more vegetables and far less red meat. According to the report, you can cut your cancer risk by 30 to 40 percent if you: • Eat 15 to 30 ounces, or five or more daily servings, of vegetables and fruits and 20 to 30 ounces, or more than seven daily servings, of cereals, legumes (peas, baked beans), roots and tubers (potatoes, yams) and plantains (bananas). The AICR reports that a change as simple as eating the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables each day could by itself reduce cancer rates more than 20 percent. • Avoid being underweight or overweight; limit weight gain during adulthood to less than 11 pounds and exercise every day. • Limit intake of red meat to less than 3 ounces daily, and limit consumption of fatty foods, salted foods and use of cooking and table salt. • Don’t eat charred food, drink alcohol in moderation, if at all, and do not smoke or use tobacco in any form. These guidelines look simple enough on paper. But for many people, a change in diet may seem so drastic it can be overwhelming. Registered Dietitian Vicki Kobliner of Stamford, an officer of the Connecticut Dietetic Association, says anyone planning a dietary change should phase foods in, and out, gradually. “Research shows that certain foods are definitely good disease fighters, but human beings didn’t evolve by having to know specifically how much of each to eat,” she explains. “They evolved by eating a wide variety of healthy foods.” And the cut-out-the-fat message is overemphasized, she says. “Instead, we should be talking about what we can increase,” she adds. “If you eat lots of fruits and vegetables and high-fiber foods every day, the others become less a part of your diet by default. Focus on what you can eat rather than what you can’t.” That means a variety of fruits and vegetables: not apples, bananas and oranges only, but cantaloupe, mangoes and strawberries. If you’re deciding between iceberg lettuce and romaine, keep in mind that the darker the color, the more nutritious, and choose the romaine. Dark green vegetables should include the mainstays of broccoli and green beans, but venture afield into collard greens and Swiss chard. What all the buzz is about Health food aficionados know the buzzwords associated today with good nutrition — phytochemicals and antioxidants. They are, very simply, chemical compounds created by plants. A tomato contains 10,000 phytochemicals, and a bite of broccoli or Brussels sprouts serves up thousands. Vitamin C, Vitamin E and beta carotene are also examples of antioxidant nutrients. Scientists believe phytochemicals may protect cells from the damaging effects of toxic substances that can result in cancer, heart disease and foster the aging process, according to the American Dietetic Association. Research also suggests that people tend to develop fewer cancers when their diets contain antioxidant-rich foods, the ADA advises. Antioxidant-rich foods include yellow-orange and dark-green leafy vegetables and fruits containing beta carotene: carrots, sweet potatoes, winter squash, spinach, broccoli, blueberries and romaine lettuce, as examples. The best sources of Vitamin C are broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, tomatoes, green peppers and potatoes, citrus fruits, strawberries and cantaloupe. Broccoli, spinach and romaine lettuce provide Vitamin E along with whole-grain breads and cereals, nuts and seeds like almonds, hazelnuts and sunflower seeds. “People read how exciting beta carotene is and they think ‘Oh, supplements. I’ll take supplements,’” says Colleen Doyle, registered dietitian and director of nutrition and physical activity for the American Cancer Society headquartered in Atlanta, Ga. “But based on what we know, there is no benefit to taking supplements of antioxidants or phytochemicals. The best way to get those is through diet.” Chris Walcott of Hamden found he was changing his diet almost subconsciously last year as his father underwent surgery, then radiation and chemotherapy, for colon cancer. “I saw him eating better, so I stopped using salt and cut down on sugar,” the 43-year-old says. Instead of eating sweets and drinking coffee, the younger Walcott would grab a banana or an orange. “It was actually a lot tastier than what I was used to eating,” he says, “and I found myself losing weight just by changing foods.” It only makes sense Ronald Vender, M.D., section chief of Gastroenterology at the Hospital of Saint Raphael and medical director of the hospital’s Digestive Disease Center, says he and his associates advise patients with many different types of disease, including colon cancer, to aim for a diet high in fiber and low in fat, with three pieces of fruit and three helpings of vegetables each day. “How can you not recommend such a healthy diet to people?” he asks. Vender admits, though, that physicians traditionally have not emphasized nutrition. “Physicians typically take the medical model. Treatment and diagnosis are what they’re used to dealing with,” he explains. “But prevention is getting more emphasis.” A high-fat diet has been implicated in certain prostate cancers in men, breast cancer in women and also cancers of the colon, according to Francis Cardinale, M.D., Saint Raphael’s associate director of Radiation Oncology. Vender says diet plays a large role in treating gastroesophageal reflux, which in extreme cases can develop into a cancer of the esophagus. While some opt for a total vegetarian lifestyle, Brian Clark, a manager of Orchard Hill Market, a health food store in Branford, says he went the vegetarian route years ago and found “my body didn’t work that well on it.” But he still took some vegetarian teachings and applied them to his lifestyle. “The smartest thing anyone can do is eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day,” he says. “And, no, orange juice doesn’t count. The most efficient things in people’s diets are enzymes found in raw foods.” However, dietitians say frozen vegetables and fruits are just as good as fresh — in fact, they may be fresher — because frozen and even canned vegetables are usually packed immediately after picking. Hospital of Saint Raphael Clinical Dietitian Joanne Delgado says there are no “bad” or “good” foods. “A variety of foods is important for a well-balanced diet. Some foods are higher in nutrients than others and chosen more often,” she says. A healthy breakfast can include oatmeal or cereal with skim milk and fruit. “For those who may not find high-fiber cereals appealing, consider mixing a high-fiber cereal like Raisin Bran or Shredded Wheat with a lower-fiber cereal like Rice Krispies or Corn Flakes,” she suggests. The antioxidant lycopene, best utilized by the body from cooked tomatoes, has been found to reduce the risk of various cancers, including prostate, colon and rectal. So a meal of pasta with tomato sauce is a good choice and can be made even better, Delgado says, with a sprinkling of grilled or baked chicken or a teaspoon of olive oil and a generous helping of broccoli. If spinach, collard greens, Swiss chard and kale don’t make your mouth water, Kobliner advises putting them in soups and serving them over pasta. Delgado adds that baby spinach leaves are less strong in taste for those reluctant to eat spinach. Bagged salads now sold at grocery stores offer convenience, but also a variety of dark green lettuces that consumers might not ordinarily choose on their own. “The key is giving people simple tools to incorporate healthy changes,” Doyle says. She keeps raisins in her desk drawer for snacking, along with crackers, reduced fat peanut butter and pretzels. The gourmet sections of grocery stores carry high-fiber, low-salt tortilla chips and crackers that can provide nutritional and guilt-free snacking. Shrimp and lobster may be high in cholesterol, but they’re so low in total fat that Delgado says you can easily dine on them once a week. Omega-3 fatty acids in sardines, herring, mackerel and salmon have been found to decrease cancer formation in animals, “but the jury is still out in humans,” Doyle says. Pork tenderloin is a good choice when cooking at home or eating out, Delgado adds. It has less saturated fat than red meat and not much more than a chicken breast. Kobliner reminds everyone: Don’t forget water. “Hydrating the body is paramount.” Soybeans and soy milk are high in phytoestrogens, a hormone similar to what the human body produces and a substance found to suppress tumor growth in breast cancer and to reduce the risk of endometrial cancer or cancer of the uterus. Again, dietitians caution that taking a pill that contains a certain vitamin, phytochemical or antioxidant is not the answer in cancer prevention. “We don’t know what’s in all foods,” Kobliner says. “If we take a pill that mimics one compound in a certain food, we may be missing everything else that could have come in that food.” Oranges, for example, may give us Vitamin C, but they also give us fiber and fluid “plus a host of other compounds we haven’t yet discovered.” Teach by good example Is it ever too early to introduce good eating habits? Kobliner says while children are more picky and less prone to try new things, they will ultimately grow into them if you just keep exposing them to different foods. “My 2-year-old daughter eats four foods, but she sees her mother eat about 400,” Kobliner says. “So someday she will want to eat them, too.” Exercise is also important in preventing disease. ACS epidemiologist Kourtney Davis, Ph.D., points out that exercising 30 minutes a day is not hard to accomplish. “Take a brisk walk, and then do five minutes of vigorous housecleaning, five minutes of gardening, and take the stairs at work,” she says. Professor Walter Willett, chairman of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health and one of two American authors of the AICR study, says people must look at the whole picture. “There is now definitive evidence that some types of fats are strongly beneficial in preventing heart disease. Yet so many women in their desire to reduce cancer risks have been eliminating healthy fats from their diet,” he says. “For example, unsaturated fats in nuts and salad dressings will improve blood cholesterol and reduce heart disease risk. And there’s really no good evidence that avoiding these fats will have any effect on the chances of getting cancer.” To be truly healthy, Willett advises balancing total caloric intake with energy expenditure. “For most people, this will mean watching calories from both fat and carbohydrates,” he says, “as well as making an extra effort to put physical activity into daily life.” As Haggans informally interviewed fellow cancer patients last year in the waiting room at Saint Raphael’s Father Michael J. McGivney Center for Cancer Care, he found that all had smoked and each admitted to a high-fat diet and a love for beer, kielbasa and Italian sausage. That was enough for Haggans. “The first 50 years of my life were abuse,” he says. “The next 50 years will hopefully be more sensible.” Accompanying story: Add top 10 super foods to your grocery list While no single food can prevent cancer, there are “super” foods that everyone should eat. According to the Nutrition Action Healthletter, which is published by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C., super foods include: Sweet potatoes: full of carotenoids, Vitamin C, potassium and fiber Whole-grain bread: higher in fiber and a dozen vitamins and minerals than refined white or “wheat” flour Broccoli: Vitamin C, carotenoids and folic acid Strawberries: Vitamin C and fiber Beans: low in fat, rich in protein, iron, folic acid and fiber; choose garbanzo, pinto, black, Navy, kidney or lentils Cantaloupe: a quarter of a melon supplies as much Vitamin A and C as most people need each day Spinach and kale: Vitamin C, carotenoids, calcium and fiber Oranges: Vitamin C, folic acid and fiber Oatmeal: just plain good and low fat, high fiber Fat-free (skim) or 1% fat milk: calcium, vitamins, protein with little or no artery-clogging fat and cholesterol
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