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Does Sugar Promote Heart Disease & Cancer?

By Dr. Mercola

More than 1,660,290 new cancer cases are projected to be diagnosed in the US this year, and an estimated 580,350 Americans will die from the disease.1Another 600,000 Americans die of heart disease each year.2 At present, heart disease is the leading cause of death among both sexes.

Despite massive technological advances over the past half-century, Western medicine is still at a loss for how to rein in the prevalence of these top two killers.

It's become increasingly clear that many of the conventional strategies, from diagnosis to treatment, are riddled with flawed assumptions and approaches that, in many cases, do more harm than good.

What's worse, virtually none of the conventional strategies actually address the root cause of the problem, a flawed diet high in sugars and processed foods.

In fact, conventional dietary recommendations for the prevention of heart disease are diametrically opposed to what you actually need for optimal heart health! For over 60 years, saturated fats have been blamed for heart disease, resulting in the promulgation of a dangerous low-fat, high-sugar diet.

In reality, a diet that promotes health is high in healthful fats and very, very low in sugar and non-vegetable carbohydrates... Research coming out of some of America's most respected institutions now confirms that sugar is a primary dietary factor driving chronic disease development.

Sugar, and fructose in particular, has been implicated as a culprit in the development of both heart disease and cancer, and having this information puts youin the driver's seat when it comes to prevention.

How Much Sugar Is in Your Diet?

Ever since I started this Web site back in 1997, I've been warning about the dangers of high sugar consumption. It's important to realize that even if you don't add sugar to your foods, hidden sugar, typically in the form of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), is in virtually all processed foods, from yogurts and sauces to breads and sodas.

Many favorite staples are also grain-based, such as bagels, pancakes, and breakfast cereals. All those grains are also quickly turned into sugar in your body, adding to your sugar burden.

Clinical trials have shown that those who consume HFCS tend to develop higher risk factors for cardiovascular disease within as little as two weeks, so if I had to pick out the worst culprit among sugars, it would be fructose.

Other studies indicate that if you limit your sugar, no matter what form you get it in, you effectively decrease your chances of developing cancer—including breast and colon cancers.

Soda Drinkers Have Increased Cancer Risk

According to recent research,3, 4 older women who drink a lot of soda or other sugary beverages may be at significantly increased risk for endometrial cancer—an estrogen-dependent type of cancer that affects the lining of a woman's uterus.

The study included data for more than 23,000 postmenopausal women who were followed for 14 years.

Women who had the highest intake of sugary beverages had a whopping 78 percent higher risk for endometrial cancer, and the risk appeared to be dose dependent; rising right along with consumption. Study author Maki Inoue-Choi was not surprised by the results, and neither am I.

"Other studies have shown increasing consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages has paralleled the increase in obesity. Obese women tend to have higher levels of estrogens and insulin than women of normal weight, [and] increased levels of estrogens and insulin are established risk factors for endometrial cancer," she said.5

Previous research has also shown that dietary fructose can promote cancergrowth in a number of different ways, including:

Altered cellular metabolism

Increased reactive oxygen species (free radicals)

DNA damage

Inflammation

Fructose Promotes Cancer Cell Proliferation

Studies have shown that different sugars are metabolized using different metabolic pathways, and this is of MAJOR consequence when it comes to feeding cancer and making it proliferate. Three years ago, researchers published findings showing that fructose is readily used by cancer cells to increase their proliferation.6 Cancer cells did not respond to glucose in the same manner.

In this case, the cancer cells used were pancreatic cancer, which is typically regarded as the most deadly and universally rapid-killing form of cancer. According to the authors:

"Traditionally, glucose and fructose have been considered as interchangeable monosaccharide substrates that are similarly metabolized, and little attention has been given to sugars other than glucose. However, fructose intake has increased dramatically in recent decades and cellular uptake of glucose and fructose uses distinct transporters.

Here, we report that fructose provides an alternative substrate to induce pancreatic cancer cell proliferation. Importantly, fructose and glucose metabolism are quite different; in comparison with glucose, fructose... is preferentially metabolized via the nonoxidative pentose phosphate pathway to synthesize nucleic acids and increase uric acid production.

These findings show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation. They have major significance for cancer patients given dietary refined fructose consumption, and indicate that efforts to reduce refined fructose intake or inhibit fructose-mediated actions may disrupt cancer growth." [Emphasis mine]

The study confirms the old adage that sugar feeds cancer because they found that tumor cells do thrive on sugar (glucose). However, the cells used fructosefor cell division, speeding up the growth and spread of the cancer. This difference is clearly of major consequence, and should be carefully considered by anyone who is currently undergoing cancer treatment or seeking to prevent cancer.

This does not mean you should avoid fruits, the benefits of most fruits outweigh any concerns to fructose. I would suggest to not juice your fruits and to eat them whole, and also realize we have bred many of these fruits to a very high level of fructose. Fruits today are many times sweeter than they were historically, and should be consumed in moderation. The real problem is the high fructose corn syrup that is added to practically every processed food and drink you see.

Remember: Exercise Is Another Potent Ally Against Cancer and Heart Disease

Controlling your blood-glucose and insulin levels—through diet, along with a comprehensive exercise program—can be one of the most crucial components to a cancer recovery program. These factors are also crucial in order to prevent cancer in the first place. Diet and exercise—particularly high intensity interval training—are also the dynamic duo that will help you stave off heart disease.

In fact, a recent meta-analysis that reviewed 305 randomized controlled trials found no statistically detectable differences between exercise and medications for heart disease, including statins and beta blockers. (Previous research has also shown that exercise alone can reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease by a factor of three,7 which isn't too shabby.) Exercise is in fact so potent, the researchers suggested that drug companies ought to be required to include it for comparison when conducting clinical trials for new drugs. As reported by Bloomberg:8

"The analysis adds to evidence showing the benefit of non-medical approaches to disease through behavior and lifestyle changes... 'In cases where drug options provide only modest benefit, patients deserve to understand the relative impact that physical activity might have on their condition,' Naci and Ioannidis said in the published paper. In the meantime, 'exercise interventions should therefore be considered as a viable alternative to, or, alongside, drug therapy.'"

In a nutshell, being a healthy weight and exercising regularly creates a healthy feedback loop that optimizes and helps maintain insulin and leptin receptor sensitivity. And, as I've mentioned before, insulin and leptin resistance—primarily driven by excessive consumption of refined sugar and grains along with lack of exercise—are the underlying factors of nearly all chronic disease.

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Connecting the Dots: Fructose—Uric Acid—Cancer and Chronic Disease Risk

The theory that sugar feeds cancer was actually born nearly 80 years ago. Shockingly, most conventional cancer programs STILL do not adequately address diet and the need to avoid sugars. The 1931 Nobel laureate in medicine, German Otto Warburg, Ph.D., first discovered that cancer cells have a fundamentally different energy metabolism compared to healthy cells. Malignant tumors tend to use a process where glucose is used as a fuel by the cancer cells, creating lactic acid as a byproduct.9

The large amount of lactic acid produced by this fermentation of glucose from cancer cells is then transported to your liver. This conversion of glucose to lactic acid generates a lower, more acidic pH in cancerous tissues as well as overall physical fatigue from lactic acid buildup.10, 11

This is a very inefficient pathway for energy metabolism, which extracts only about five percent of the available energy in your food supply. In simplistic terms, the cancer is "wasting" energy, which leads you to become both tired and undernourished, and as the vicious cycle continues, will lead to the body wasting so many cancer patients experience. Additionally, carbohydrates from glucose and sucrose significantly decrease the capacity of neutrophils to do their job. Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that helps cells to envelop and destroy invaders, such as cancer.

While all forms of sugar are detrimental to health in general and promote cancer, but in slightly different ways and to a different extent, fructose clearly seems to be one of the overall most harmful. As mentioned above, fructose metabolism leads to increased uric acid production along with cancer cell proliferation.12 Again, ONLY fructose (not glucose) drives up your uric acid levels.

Now, the connection between fructose, uric acid, and insulin resistance is so clear that your uric acid level can actually be used as a marker for toxicity from fructose. What this means is that if your uric acid levels are high, you're at increased risk of all the health hazards associated with fructose consumption—including both heart disease and cancer. Subsequently, you'd be well advised to reduce your fructose intake. For more information about this, please see my previous interview with Dr. Richard Johnson, who is an expert on this topic. Two key recommendations however are:

Keep your uric acid level below 4 mg/dl for men and 3.5 mg/dl for women, and

As a standard recommendation, I strongly advise keeping your TOTAL fructose consumption below 25 grams per day

Reeling in Your Fructose Consumption May Be the Most Important Lifestyle Change You Can Make

Dr. Johnson has written one of the best books on the market on the health dangers of fructose, called The Sugar Fix, which explains how fructose causes high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and kidney disease. It's also safe to say that many cancers are also on the list of diseases that are directly linked to excessive fructose consumption. In addition to the studies already mentioned, fructose has also been found to promote metastasis in breast cancer,13 and shows genotoxic effects on the colon in animal research.14

Fructose also promotes a condition called intracranial atherosclerosis15—a narrowing and hardening of the arteries in your skull—and contrary to popular belief, it is the sugar/fructose in your diet that increases your risk for heart disease, NOT saturated animal fats.

At the basic dietary level, the prevention strategies for heart disease and cancer are identical. First and foremost, you need to address your insulin and leptin resistance, which is the result of eating a diet too high in sugars and grains—again, not fat, with the exception of trans fats from partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, which have been linked to increased heart disease risk, even in small amounts. To safely and effectively reverse insulin and leptin resistance, you need to:

Avoid sugar, processed fructose, grains if you are insulin and leptin resistant, and processed foods

Eat a healthful diet of whole foods, ideally organic, and replace the grain carbs with:

Large amounts of vegetables

Low-to-moderate amount of high-quality protein (think organically raised, pastured animals)

As much high-quality healthful fat as you want (saturated and monosaturated from animal and tropical oil sources). Most people actually need upwards of 50-85 percent fats in their diet for optimal health—a far cry from the 10 percent currently recommended.

Restricting Fructose Consumption Is Crucial Part of a Healthy Lifestyle

Whether we're talking about heart disease or cancer, reducing (or preferably eliminating) fructose and other added sugars, as well as limiting grain carbohydrates from your diet is a primary strategy on my list if you have insulin and leptin resistance. This dietary modification should also be part of your comprehensive treatment plan if you've been diagnosed with either cancer or heart disease.

Understand that excessive fructose consumption leads to insulin resistance, and insulin resistance appears to be the root of many if not most chronic disease, including heart disease and cancer. So far, scientific studies have linked excessive fructose consumption to about 78 different diseases and health problems.16

By severely reducing your intake of fructose and carbs in your diet, you help stave off any potential cancer growth, and "starve" any tumors you currently have. It also bolsters your overall immune function, because sugar decreases the function of your immune system almost immediately.

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Disturbing: Researchers Finally Confirm That Cancer Is A Purely Man-Made Disease

Researchers from the University Of Manchester, United Kingdom, have concluded that cancer is a purely modern, man-made disease.

In the United Kingdom alone, Cancer claims more than 150,000 lives each year. Statistics also show that about one in three people in the United Kingdom is likely to get cancer.

The researchers spent a great deal of time studying mummies, fossils and classical literature before arriving at their conclusion.

The researchers said the disease is a man-made disease fuelled by the excesses of modern life. This is because tumors were rare until recent times, when pollution and poor diet became an issue.

In the study of Egyptian mummies, for example, the researchers found no signs of cancer in many of them—with the exception of one isolated case. Slivers of tissue from hundreds of Egyptian mummies were rehydrated and placed under the microscope. The researchers found only one case of cancer in the mummies examined.

In the past, some researchers have argued that the ancient Egyptians did not live long enough to develop cancer. To dismiss this weak argument, the researchers pointed out that other age-related disease, such as hardening of the arteries and brittle bones, occurred during this time.

The journal Nature Reviews Cancer reports that fossil evidence of cancer is not solid, with scientific literature providing a few dozen, mostly disputed, examples in animal fossils. Even the study of thousands of Neanderthal bones has provided only one example of a possible cancer.

Evidence of cancer in ancient Egyptian texts is also tenuous, with cancer-like problems more likely being caused by leprosy or even varicose veins. It is said the ancient Greeks were probably the first to define cancer as a specific disease, and to distinguish between benign and malignant tumors.

The 17th century provides the first descriptions of operations for breast and other cancers. However, the first reports in scientific literature of distinctive tumors only occurred in the past 200 years. Nasal cancer in snuff users appeared in 1761. Scrotal cancer in chimney sweeps was also discovered in 1775.

Lead researcher of this current study, Michael Zimmerman said there should have been plenty of cancer-related evidence available in ancient societies because they lacked effective healthcare.

“In an ancient society lacking surgical intervention, evidence of cancer should remain in all cases. The virtual absence of malignancies in mummies must be interpreted as indicating their rarity in antiquity, indicating that cancer-causing factors are limited to societies affected by modern industrialization,” Zimmerman said.

Professor Rosalie David, who also played a key role in the analysis of the possible reference to the disease in classical literature, fossil records and mummified bodies, said:

“In industrialized societies, cancer is second only to cardiovascular disease as a cause of death. But in ancient times, it was extremely rare. There is nothing in the natural environment that can cause cancer. So it has to be a man-made disease, down to pollution and changes to our diet and lifestyle. The important thing about our study is that it gives a historical perspective to this disease. We can make very clear statements on the cancer rates in societies because we have a full overview. We have looked at millennia, not one hundred years, and have masses of data. Yet again extensive ancient Egyptian data, along with other data from across the millennia, has given modern society a clear message – cancer is man-made and something that we can and should address.”

The researchers recommended a healthy diet, regular physical activity and maintenance of a healthy weight. These three lifestyle choices are believed to be able to prevent about a third of the most common cancers known to researchers.

This Article (Disturbing: Researchers Finally Confirm That Cancer Is A Purely Man-Made Disease) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and AnonHQ.com

This Doctor's 25 Years Of Research Showed: Cancer Patients Live 4X Longer By Refusing Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is one of the most expensive medical treatments in the world today, but is it actually…effective? Thanks to alternative media and documentaries like the ‘Truth About Cancer’ series, more and more people beginning to question not only its efficacy, but also whether it actually does more harm than good.

Believe it or not that questioned may have been answered more than 40 years ago, when a shocking study was released that could have ended the chemo experiment — if anyone had been paying attention.

Dr. Hardin B. Jones, a former Professor of Medical Physics and Physiology at Berkeley, California, concluded after over 25 years of research not only that chemotherapy, radiation and surgery do not work and do not prolong a cancer patient’s life, but patients receiving these types of oncological treatments in many cases die much sooner than those who choose to be untreated. Treated patients also die a much more painful death.

“People who refused chemotherapy treatment live an average of 12 and a half years longer than the people who are receiving chemotherapy,” wrote Dr. Jones in the journal of New York Academy of Sciences.

In 1969 he presented his research at the American Cancer Society’s Science Writers’ Seminar, and the unbelievable findings still send shockwaves through the cancer industry to this day. Chemotherapy does not work the way it is supposed to.

Because chemotherapy kills the healthy cells sooner than it affects the cancer cells, the body is left weakened and defenseless against the disease. Adding big side effects of the toxins of the treatment on top, the human body is left barely holding on to life with no immune system to heal itself.

“It is not the cancer that kills the victim. It’s the breakdown of the defense mechanism that eventually brings death,” told Jones to MIDNIGHT. He and his wife considered what would they do if they were to develop cancer and both agreed that they would stay clear of mainstream treatments and instead do everything to keep the body in as healthy state as possible.

Jones’ Studies on Treatment with Vitamins

Jones’ research showed great potential for nutritional treatment. Doctors A. Hoffer and Linus Pauling analyzed and reported on Jones’ multiple studies. The findings show that on average cancer patients who followed a regimen of vitamins and minerals had 4 times longer survival time than patients who were not following the protocol. Their conclusion was that all cancer patients need to start this protocol as soon as possible. For people who would like to prevent cancer, it would be beneficial to also be on the same protocol just using lower dosages. The regimen included: a daily dose of 12 g Vitamin C, Vitamin B3, B6 and other B-Vitamins, folic acid, Vitamin E, beta carotene, selenium, zinc, and sometimes other minerals (note: natural vitamins and minerals are almost always the best choice; not all are created equal). Other parts of the treatment were following a healthy diet, and taking care of the patients’ mental health.

Jones’ Other Conclusions about Cancer

In 1969, American Cancer Society published Jones’ aforementioned presentation from the 11th Science Writers’ Seminar. Cancer biology was one of the main research topics for Jones and the subject of this talk.

“A Report on Cancer” delivered these conclusions analyzing years of his research:

There is a strong link between carcinogens and cancer.

Jones stated that the more the person was exposed to a carcinogen, the higher their risk of developing cancer is. Different carcinogens have a slightly different effect and timeframe, but the stronger the individual dose of carcinogen is – the less time it takes for cancer to develop. With so many carcinogens in today’s food, air and water, it’s no wonder why cancer rates been on the rise.

Surgery and radiation survival data is biased and faulty.

Jones provides multiple example of errors in the data when it comes to comparing rates in survival of those patients who went through surgery and/or radiation versus those who were untreated. Most studies he had seen did not count patients who died before the completion of their treatment.

Their deaths were omitted from the data as “rejected.” By defining two groups as treated and untreated, the treated group had to have finished the treatment in order to be counted in the study. The study looked at whether or not the patient survived after the surgery or operation was over, and those who died during these two types of treatment did not “meet the criteria” to be in the “treated” group, and were omitted. The longer the study was, and the more steps it had, the more errors were in the study, stated Jones.

The complete list Jones’s papers (written over a 41-year period) is available online in The Bancroft Library of Berkeley, California.

Has Chemo’s Efficacy Changed?

If you’ve ever met a cancer survivor you know that there are plenty of them out there who have undergone chemo treatments and survived (of course there seem to be far more natural survivors that are not counted).

And with the right nutritional protocol, emotional support, mindset, and other factors it is indeed possible to live on and heal the body after chemo. That being said, key recent studies have not exactly been in chemotherapy’s favor. Even though some have defended the procedure because of recent “advancements,” the survival rate has remained questionable at best, if not dismal compared to natural and holistic treatments being undertaken at specialty clinics and in people’s homes.

According to a major study conducted by the Department of Radiation Oncology at Northern Sydney Cancer Centre and published in the December 2004 issue of Clinical Oncology, chemotherapy’s real impact on the survival of American adults is a mere 2.1%, and that’s only for up to five years, not a “true survival rate.” With so much risk and so many nasty side effects surrounding chemo, do you think it’s worth the risk?

This article is for informational purposes only and should not constitute medical advice. It is not intended to treat, cure or prevent any diseases. Speak to a doctor before making any major changes.

New Natural Way To Starve Cancer And Obesity

"Angiogenesis" is the process your body uses to build blood vessels. Your body consists of some 19 billion capillaries (the smallest blood vessels), which are the vessels for both life, and yes, in many cases, death, as Dr. William Li, explains during his fascinating TED lecture.

This is because cancerous cells, like all other cells in your body, cannot thrive without the oxygen and nutrients supplied by your capillaries.

Virtually all of your blood vessels are formed while you're in the womb, but there are still certain circumstances in adulthood when your body will grow new blood vessels.

Blood vessels are created each month to form the lining of a woman's uterus, for example. And during pregnancy, new blood vessels form the placenta, which connects and shuttles nutrients to the growing fetus.

"Your body has the ability to regulate the amount of blood vessels it needs at any given time," Li explains, and it does this through an elaborate system of stimulators and inhibitors.

"But for a number of diseases there are defects in this system," Li says.

In some cases, your body becomes incapable of "pruning back" extra blood vessels, and in others it cannot grow enough new ones.

In these situations, angiogenesis is out of balance, and a myriad of diseases result.

For example, insufficient angiogenesis (too few blood vessels) can lead to:

Chronic wounds that will not heal

Heart disease

Stroke

Neuropathy

Erectile dysfunction

Excessive angiogenesis (too many blood vessels) promote diseases such as:

Cancer

Blindness

Arthritis

Endometriosis

Multiple sclerosis

According to Dr. Li, there are more than 70 major diseases, affecting more than a billion people worldwide -- which on the surface appear completely different from each other -- that all share abnormal angiogenesis as a common denominator.

"This realization allows us to reconceptualize the way we approach these diseases -- by controlling angiogenesis," Li says.

This is exciting, as I believe and have taught for years that your diet is the key to preventing diseases of all kinds, including cancer. Dr. Li's research explains, and scientifically validates what many of us have experienced, and our ancestors intuitively knew.

You are what you eat, and there are vast differences between a historically wholesome, nutritious diet, and the processed, chemical-based foods that pass for sustenance today.

Strategies for Starving Cancer, and Obesity

In his TED talk, Dr. Li focuses primarily on cancer, because angiogenesis is a hallmark of the disease. As stated earlier, cancer cells cannot grow into noticeable tumors without sufficient amounts of capillaries feeding them oxygen- and nutrient-rich blood.

As it turns out, the majority of people carry around microscopic cancer cell clusters in their bodies, but not everyone actually develops cancer.

This is because as long as your body has the ability to balance angiogenesis properly, it will prevent blood vessels from forming to feed these microscopic tumors. Trouble will only arise if, and when, the cancer cells manage to get their own blood supply, at which point they can transform from harmless to deadly.

"Anti-angiogenic therapy is the method of cutting off blood supply to the cancer," Li explains. "This can be done because tumor vessels, unlike healthy vessels, are abnormal and poorly constructed, and because of that, they're highly vulnerable to treatments that target them."

There are currently about a dozen different anti-angiogenic cancer drugs that, according to Li's statistics, have significantly increased survival rates.

However, the answer to the cancer epidemic is not just devising better drugs to treat it in its advanced stages. The answer is preventing cancer from occurring in the first place, and that's what's so exciting about Dr. Li's research.

Interestingly, obesity is also largely dependent on angiogenesis.

"Like tumor cells, fat cells grow when blood vessels grow," Li says. So in essence, a cancer-preventive diet is also an obesity-preventive diet.

The Cancer-Preventive Diet

Dr. Li believes the answer to cancer is to prevent angiogenesis, which can effectively starve any microscopic cancerous growths, preventing them from growing and becoming dangerous.

But how do you prevent angiogenesis, aside from using a drug?

As it turns out, "mother nature has laced a large number of foods, beverages and herbs with naturally occurring inhibitors of angiogenesis," says Li.

So by consuming these anti-angiogenetic foods you can naturally boost your body's defense system and prevent blood vessels from forming and feeding the microscopic tumors that exist in your body at any given time.

As shown on a graph in the video, diet accounts for at least 30-35 percent of all environmentally caused cancers.

So, "eating to starve cancer" could have a dramatic impact on cancer rates across the world.

According to Li, resveratrol from red grapes, for example, have been shown to inhibit abnormal angiogenesis by 60 percent. Even more potent is the ellagic acid found in strawberries.

Other anti-angiogenetic foods include:

Green tea Berries: strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries Cherries

Red grapes Kale Turmeric

Nutmeg Artichokes Parsley

Garlic Tomato Maitake mushroom

Logically, different foods contain different potencies of anti-angiogenetic compounds. But interestingly, when researchers evaluated a combination of two of the LEAST potent teas, for example, they discovered that this combination tea had greater potency than any given tea by itself.

"There's synergy," Li states, which should come as no surprise to those of you who are well-versed in holistic nutrition.

Synergy is indeed what makes fresh, whole foods so potently nutritious! The sum is far greater than the individual parts, and this is why it's far more important to focus on eating a diet of whole, organic foods, rather than obsessing about individual nutrients.

Some Foods are As Potent, or More Potent than Anti-Angiogenetic Drugs!

In his lecture, Dr. Li shows a graph comparing anti-angiogenetic drugs with foods. It's a beautiful illustration of just how potent foods can be, because, as Li says, "foods hold their own, and in some cases are more potent than the drugs!"

Examples of foods equaling or exceeding the potency of drugs include parsley, garlic, and red grapes.

Dr. Li is now involved with creating the world's first rating system that will score foods according to their anti-angiogenetic, cancer-preventative properties. But there's really no reason to wait for a comprehensive list, because we already know that optimal health hinges on a healthy diet consisting of a wide variety of whole, organic foods.

Just like a single food contains synergistic compounds, and a combination of foods can work together synergistically, a healthy diet overall will help you prevent all manner of disease, including cancer, in more ways than one.

For example, balancing your insulin levels will have a beneficial, protective effect on a number of diseases, including cancer. And eating according to your nutritional type also has potent anti-cancer effects. When we treat cancer patients in our clinic, this is in fact one of the most powerful anti-cancer strategies we have.

Other Important Strategies that Can Help Prevent Cancer

It's virtually impossible to discuss cancer prevention today without discussing vitamin D, as the scientific evidence of its anti-cancerous benefits is truly impressive.

For example, intake of vitamin D3 and calcium could potentially prevent 58,000 new cases of breast cancer and 49,000 new cases of colorectal cancer annually in the United States and Canada, according to a complex computer prediction model.

This model also predicted that 75 percent of deaths from these cancers could be prevented with adequate intake of vitamin D3 and calcium.

Theories linking vitamin D to certain cancers have been tested and confirmed in more than 200 epidemiological studies, and understanding of its physiological basis stems from more than 2,500 laboratory studies, according to epidemiologist Cedric Garland, DrPH, professor of family and preventive medicine at the UC San Diego School of Medicine.

Dr. Garland is widely regarded as the leading epidemiologist on vitamin D and its relation to health. He led one of the latest studies on vitamin D for cancer prevention and proposed a new model of cancer development -- dubbed DINOMIT-- that is centered on a loss of cancer cells' ability to stick together.

The model is a departure from the older model of cancer development, which centers on genetic mutations as the earliest driving forces behind cancer. According to Dr. Garland:

"The first event in cancer is loss of communication among cells due to, among other things, low vitamin D and calcium levels. In this new model, we propose that this loss may play a key role in cancer by disrupting the communication between cells that is essential to healthy cell turnover, allowing more aggressive cancer cells to take over."

So clearly, no cancer prevention plan is complete without this simple lifestyle modification.

Normalizing your vitamin D levels with safe amounts of sun exposure is one of the most effective, and least expensive, strategies that is available to most people. Ideally, you'll want to monitor your vitamin D levels to make sure your levels stay within a therapeutic range year-round.

Here are several additional strategies you can incorporate to virtually eliminate your cancer risk:

Control your insulin levels by limiting your intake of processed foods and sugars as much as possible.

Get appropriate amounts of animal-based omega-3 fats.

Exercise. One of the primary reasons exercise works is that it drives your insulin levels down. Controlling insulin levels is one of the most powerful ways to reduce your cancer risks.

Have a tool to permanently erase the neurological short-circuiting that can activate cancer genes. Even the CDC states that 85 percent of disease is caused by emotions. It is likely that this factor may be more important than all the other physical ones listed here, so make sure this is addressed. My particular favorite tool for this purpose, as you may know, is the Emotional Freedom Technique.

Only 25 percent of people eat enough vegetables, so by all means eat as many vegetables as you are comfortable with. Ideally, they should be fresh and organic. However, please understand that, frequently, fresh conventionally grown vegetables are healthier than organic ones that are older and wilted in the grocery store. They are certainly better than no vegetables at all, so don't use that as an excuse. If you are a carb nutritional type you may need up to 300 percent more vegetables than a protein nutritional type.

Maintain an ideal body weight.

Get enough high-quality sleep.

Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, household chemical cleaners, synthetic air freshenersand air pollution.

Boil, poach or steam your foods, rather than frying or charbroiling them.

Green tea	Berries: strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries	Cherries
Red grapes	Kale	Turmeric
Nutmeg	Artichokes	Parsley
Garlic	Tomato	Maitake mushroom

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