Preventing and Reversing Cancer with a Whole Food Plant-Based Diet

Last week we looked at the #1 Killer of Americans—Heart Disease. This week we will look at the second highest killer—Cancer.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, Cancer was the second highest cause of death in America in 2016, with 598,038 deaths. [1] Globally, it contributed to an estimated 9.6 million deaths in 2018. According to the World Health Organization, about 1 in 6 deaths is due to cancer. [2] For perspective, the number of people that die from cancer each year is about equivalent to the total deaths from the American Civil War if it repeated over 15 times! [3] [4].

Lung Cancer Cell Dividing

The National Cancer Institute explains, “Cancer is the name given to a collection of related diseases. In all types of cancer, some of the body’s cells begin to divide without stopping and spread into surrounding tissues.”

It then states that “Cancer can start almost anywhere in the human body, which is made up of trillions of cells...When cancer develops, however, this orderly process breaks down. As cells become more and more abnormal, old or damaged cells survive when they should die, and new cells form when they are not needed. These extra cells can divide without stopping and may form growths called tumors.”

Many people often link cancer with old age, but that is not entirely true. A study recently published in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal The Lancet found that six types of cancer (multiple myeloma, colorectal, uterine corpus, gallbladder, kidney, and pancreatic cancer) increased in young adults (25-49 years) with steeper rises in younger generations. [5]

The study found that cancer is becoming more and more paramount for us younger generations. There is good news, though! The same diet that helps prevent heart disease just happens to be the same kind of diet that also helps prevent cancer. That one diet is a whole food plant-based diet.

the bar on the left shows cancer death with a Standard american diet (6%) and the bar on the right shows cancer death with a wFPB Diet (70%). [6]

Dean Ornish M.D., president of the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute, conducted a study to find the effect of diet on prostate cancer and published his results in the Journal of Urology. When blood from men on a Standard American Diet was dripped onto cancer cells growing in a petri dish, cancer growth was cut down nine percent. However, when blood from men eating a plant-based diet for one year was dripped onto cancer cells, cancer growth was cut down by seventy percent! [6]

Prostate cancer is the leading cancer killer for men. In women, the #1 killer is breast cancer. Researchers, who published a journal article in the peer-reviewed journal Nutrition and Cancer, wanted to try the same procedure again, but for breast cancer cells. They also didn’t want to wait an entire year so instead, they used the blood of women who ate a plant-based diet for just 14 days. They found that the blood of women on a plant-based diet for 14 days cut down cancer growth more than the blood of the same women on a Standard American Diet just two weeks earlier. [7]

The bar on the left shows a Standard American diet (SAD) with little exercise, the middle bar shows a SAD with strenuous exercise, and the right bar shows a WFPB Diet with light exercise. [8] [9]

Scientists wondered if the people eating a plant-based diet also exercised and more and if that was their reason their blood reversed cancer growth. A study published in the peer-reviewed journal The Prostate studied the apoptosis or programmed cancer cell death levels for each of three groups: those who were on a Standard American Diet and sedentary for 14 years, those who were on a Standard American Diet, but had 14 years of daily, strenuous, hour-long exercise, and those who followed a plant-based diet and had mild exercise such as walking.

The study showed that the group following a plant-based diet with mild exercise had an apoptosis rate almost twice as much as the group eating a Standard American Diet but with daily, strenuous exercise. The plant-based group also had an apoptosis rate hundreds of times larger than the group on a Standard American Diet with minimal exercise. [8]

Click on the Image to be taken to Dr. Greger’s Video.

I thought that it would be helpful for me to include some resources where you can learn more about cancer and even how to prevent and reverse it. The first is a video is titled How Not to Die from Cancer and is a part of Dr. Michael Greger’s How Not to Die series. He also has two videos on treating prostate cancer: Treating Advanced Prostate Cancer with Diet Part 1 and Treating Advanced Prostate Cancer with Diet Part 2. Lastly, you can find over 500 videos about a plant-based diet and cancer at his video library about cancer.

The amazing takeaway from this blog is that some cancers can not only be prevented but even reversed by following a whole food plant-based diet. It is of critical importance for young people like me to start now because cancer rates are increasing in younger generations.

Sources:

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm

[2] https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cancer

[3] https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-casualties

[4] Calculations: Deaths in the American Civil War: 620,000

Deaths from Cancer each year: 9,600,000

⇒9,600,000/620,000≈15.5

[5] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468266718302676?via%3Dihub

[6] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16094059

[7] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16965238

[8] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12772189

[9] https://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-not-to-die-from-cancer/

[10] https://nutritionfacts.org/video/treating-advanced-prostate-cancer-with-diet-part-1/

[11] https://nutritionfacts.org/video/treating-advanced-prostate-cancer-with-diet-part-2/

[12] https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/cancer/

A WFPB Diet Prevents and Reverses the #1 Killer of Americans—Heart Disease

The number one cause of death in the United States is Heart disease with 635,260 deaths in 2016. [1] Cardiovascular diseases are also the leading causes of death worldwide with about 17.9 million people who died in 2016. [2] This is about the equivalent of over five jumbo jets crashing every single hour, every single day, every single year. [3]

According to the Mayo Clinic, “The term ‘heart disease’ is often used interchangeably with the term ‘cardiovascular disease.’ Cardiovascular disease generally refers to conditions that involve narrowed or blocked blood vessels that can lead to a heart attack, chest pain (angina) or stroke. Other heart conditions, such as those that affect your heart's muscle, valves or rhythm, also are considered forms of heart disease. Many forms of heart disease can be prevented or treated with healthy lifestyle choices.” [4]

This image shows the progression of atherosclerosis or plaque buildup over the course of a lifetime. [6]

Most children in the United States who are following a Standard American Diet, have fatty streaks in their arteries, which is the first sign of the disease, by the age of 10. [5] Then during the 20s and 30s plaque buildup, known as atherosclerosis, has already occurred. [6] [7] Later in life, heart disease comes back to kill people off. So, for most people, the question is not how to prevent heart disease, but how to reverse heart disease that likely already exists.

A peer-reviewed journal article published in the Journal of Family Practice aimed to determine if eating a plant-based diet stopped and even reversed heart disease. The researchers found that as soon as patients stopped eating artery-clogging diets, their bodies began dissolving some of the existing plaque away, which opened up arteries without drugs and surgery—simply as a result of eating whole food plant-based (WFPB). [8]

Image from Source [8]

The paper even showed a significant increase in blood flow to the heart muscle after following just 3 weeks of a WFPB diet. In fact, normal blood flow was restored.

High cholesterol is often one of the main risk factors for heart disease. To lower cholesterol through diet, three things must be avoided: trans fats, saturated fats, and dietary cholesterol. Trans fats are mostly found in junk food and animal products. The top food sources of trans fat include cakes, cookies, crackers, pies, bread, animal products like chicken, cheese, milk, yogurt, turkey, and hot dogs. [9]

The top food sources of saturated fat include cheese, desserts, pizza, chicken, sausage, bacon, milk, eggs, burgers, and chips. [9]. It is important to note that trans fat and saturated fat are commonly found in processed foods, many of animal origin.

Lastly, the top food sources of cholesterol are eggs, chicken, beef, cheese, sausage, bacon, ribs, fish, dairy, pizza, pork, and shrimp. [9] Only animal products contain dietary cholesterol. Foods from plants contain no cholesterol. So one of the best ways to avoid dietary cholesterol is to not eat anything that comes from animals including milk products, eggs or fish.

According to a peer-review journal article published in the journal Nutrition Reviews, “Tolerable upper intake levels (ULs) set by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) are important, in part because they are used for estimating the percentage of the population at potential risk of adverse effects from excessive nutrient intake. The IOM did not set ULs for trans fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol because any intake level above 0% of energy increased LDL cholesterol concentration.” [10] LDL stands for low-density lipoprotein, i.e. the bad cholesterol.

It was shocking for me when I learned that children following a Standard American Diet already begin developing early signs of heart disease by the age of 10. However, it's uplifting to know that our #1 killer can be stopped and even reversed simply by following a whole food plant-based diet. The youth of America really need to wake up and take action now! And to do just that, I have started this website and blog.

Sources:

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm

[2] https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cardiovascular-diseases-(cvds)

[3] Calculations: Average Amount of people in a jumbo jet: 400

400 x 5 (jumbo jets per hour) = 2,000

2,000 x 24 (hours in a day) = 48,000

48,000 x 365 (days in a year) = 17,520,000 people (slightly less than 17.9 million)

[4] https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/heart-disease/symptoms-causes/syc-20353118

[5] http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/jar/article/PIIS0368131969800207/abstract

[6] https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/72/5/1307s/4730131

[7] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12244281

[8] https://www.mdedge.com/familymedicine/article/83345/cardiology/way-reverse-cad

[9] https://nutritionfacts.org/video/trans-fat-saturated-fat-and-cholesterol-tolerable-upper-intake-of-zero/

[10] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21521229

[11] https://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-not-to-die/

Canada’s New Food Guide - 2019

Canada’s Latest Food Guide as of 2019

Canada recently released a new food guide in January of 2019. [1] The new food guide advises Canadians to eliminate dairy, eat less meat and move towards a plant-based diet. We will now look at the history of the Food Guide and the clear pattern that emerges. Every iteration it keeps moving toward a recommendation of a whole food plant based diet for Canadians. Truly, the government of Canada is giving inspiration to other countries to move in the same direction.

The guide is created by the Canadian federal government and updated every few years. The old guides used to include large quantities of animal products. In fact, Canada’s 1977 Food Guide showed a quarter of the plate filled with milk and milk products and another quarter filled with meat and alternates. So essentially half of the plate showed animal products.

Another update to the food guide was made in 1982, but there were no major changes. The colors were changed, and the group “meat and alternatives” was changed to “meat, fish, poultry, and alternatives.” There was hardly any progress in the Guide in the five years 1977-1982.

A revolutionary book titled Diet for a New America: How Your Food Choices Affect Your Health, Happiness and the Future of Life on Earth was published by John Robbins, the son of the co-founder of Baskin-Robbins, in 1987. This book inspired a whole lot of people to go plant-based during that time period.

Canada’s 1992 Food Guide

According to Canada’s Food History page which describes the 1992 edition, “The revised Canada's Food Guide... marks a new era in nutrition guidance in Canada. Historic changes accompanied the 1992 revision. The title was changed to reflect the overarching goal of the Guide, becoming Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating. The design changed - a rainbow graphic now displayed the four food groups, all of which bore new names: - Grain Products, Vegetables and Fruit, Milk Products, and Meat and Alternatives.”

The 1992 Food Guide also marked the beginning of a shift towards a more plant-based food guide. The recommended number of servings for Grain Products was 5-12, which was an increase from previous years. Canadians were also encouraged to consume 5-10 servings of Fruits and Vegetables a day. The servings of Meat and Alternatives were held to 2-3 servings and Milk Products to 2-4 servings per day. Thus, we see a clear shift toward a WFPB diet as early as 26 years ago!

Canada’s 2007 Food Guide

Canada’s 2007 Food Guide also had a strong focus on Vegetables and Fruit as well as Grain Products. The Food Guide also came with some tips to “Meet your needs for vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. Reduce your risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, certain types of cancer and osteoporosis. Contribute to your overall health and vitality.”

Some tips included “Have meat alternatives such as beans, lentils, and tofu often.” and “Eat at least one dark green and one orange vegetable each day.” The tips from 2007 along with the Food Guide still included dairy and animal products but were moving closer to whole food plant-based (WFPB).

Tips from Canada’s 2019 Food Guidelines

Now, Canada has released a new food guide, the latest 2019 version, which has no dairy and very little animal products. Half of the new plate is filled with fruits and vegetables and a quarter of the plate is filled with whole grain foods. The remaining quarter of the plate is proteins, which include beans, legumes, seeds, and tofu. In fact, the guidelines say, “Vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and protein foods should be consumed regularly. Among protein foods, consume plant-based more often."

Note that only a quarter of the entire plate contains small amounts of animal products. Even for this small quantity, the Guide is suggesting we avoid animal foods altogether, but cannot say it yet that strongly. Though as we saw earlier, Canada’s food guide is shifting towards a more whole food plant-based diet over the years. Perhaps this hesitation is explained by a quote from the Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor about lobbying from the meat and dairy industries. "The only thing I can say is that these many groups have made their positions known, and it is their right to do so. It was my role as Health Minister to meet with all stakeholders.” [2] I suspect that these industries lobbied to include some animal products in the food guide. However, there is no doubt that the guide is moving towards WFPB.

For us teens, the website also includes a section with tips. “Try including vegetables and fruits at every meal and snack. They are filled with nutrients that your body needs. They also make a great snack when you are on the go. When deciding what to drink, make water your drink of choice.” The tips also explain how to eat your food to keep yourself from overeating. “Focus all of your attention on eating. Turn off the TV and put away your phone, lap-top or other screens. When you are distracted while you eat, you can lose track of how much you have eaten.”

The page also warns teens to beware of food marketing because “Most foods that are advertised are highly processed foods.” The guidelines also state that there is an “Association between increased intakes of vegetables and fruit and decreased cardiovascular disease risk.” Dr. Esselstyn would be happy!

It is heartwarming to know that a main-stream source like the Canadian Food Guide of 2019 is now very close to advocating a WFPB diet. I am so glad that they are providing such good advice to all teens and leading the way for the entire population to go plant-based. This was the news of the week for me! Cheers to the Canadians. I hope other counties will follow their lead, especially the US of A!

Sources:

[1] https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/

[2] https://www.plantbasednews.org/post/new-canada-food-guide-ditches-dairy-says-eat-more-vegan-foods