Interface: Cancer Prevention

Dear Dr. Meinig: There are so many conflicting stories about the cause of cancer, could you perhaps list some of the possibly more prevalent causes and your thoughts about nutrition’s role in prevention? – C.L.

Dear C.L.: It is true that each day reports are printed about new possible causes of cancer. I don’t think we should be too surprised at the number of chemicals and other agents that may be suspected causes for malignant tumors, when we consider the ease with which people adopt such a variety of detrimental dietary habits.

The sheer number of press reports is discouraging. They tend to leave negative implications that turn people away from adopting simple and worthwhile preventive measures. Advances have been made, but as yet no one can guarantee immunity to cancer. However, the success ratio of prevention is more in your favor than the public realizes. A do-nothing fatalistic acceptance that it is fate or bad luck to get cancer is not realistic.

The first step in cancer prevention is to reduce or eliminate known cancer-causing agents. Some of the prevalent ones are:

1. Tobacco and marijuana. These produce benzopyrenes which are hydrocarbons, chief causes of lung, oral and bladder cancers.
2. High intake of overly-processed foods. These include: sugar, white flour products, refined cereals, highly refined vegetable fats, and foods and beverages containing chemical coloring agents, coal-tar derivatives and other additives.
3. High heat cooling of meat. This produces cancer-causing chemicals called malonaldehydes. Over-cooking reduces the food value of all food.
4. Caffeine products. Coffee, tea, chocolate, cocoa, soft drinks, and some drugs contain methylxanthine, a stimulant that has proved a factor in breast and prostate tumors.
5. High fat diets. Particularly the high use of deep-fat-fried foods and the fat of animals derived from heavy feeding of grain in feed-lots. Colon and breast cancers have been linked to high fat diets.
6. Smoked and salt-cured foods. These contain nitrates and nitrites that combine to form nitrosamines that have been listed as a cause of stomach and intestinal cancer.
7. Over-the-counter sleeping drugs. Those that contain pyrilamine have been associated with liver cancer.
8. Alcohol. Frequent use, especially when in conjunction with cigarettes, is associated with stomach, intestinal and respiratory cancers.

These above agents have all been traced as substances that can be activated in the body to form cancer cells or be detoxified and become harmless. A number of nutritional supplements have been shown to interrupt or block these processes and stop tumor production. These are the vitamins A, C, E, Beta Carotene, and small amounts of the mineral selenium.

Nutrition-wise, a high protein diet rich in nucleic acids, raw vegetables, complexed 100 percent whole grains, including high fiber foods, are essential. Regular exercise is part of, and essential to, our nutritive program.

Elimination of the above-mentioned causative agents, plus a good diet every day, along with the anti-oxidant supplements, are producing positive health changes and reducing malignancies. Recent evidence also suggests these procedures can be helpful in curing existing tumors, but it should be obvious that prevention is much more effective.