Strategy to combat cancer: Avoid meats and dairy products

Strategy to combat cancer: Avoid meats and dairy products

Avoiding meats and dairy products is increasingly touted as helping to prevent the disease

Kimberly Hayes Taylor / The Detroit News

We've heard about ways to potentially prevent cancer and other diseases -- increase antioxidants, take vitamins, eat eight to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables daily and drink plenty of purified water.

We all know we're supposed to avoid salty and sugary foods, as well as foods loaded with fat and cholesterol -- and that we should exercise.

But what about the advice to avoid meat and meat by-products? After all, they are the only foods that contain cholesterol, and fruits and vegetables open the arteries while cholesterol-containing foods clog them.

Although some people find the idea of avoiding meat repulsive, a growing number of Metro Detroiters are embracing the idea so much they are taking classes to learn how to cook delicious yet simple meals without meat or dairy products such as milk, eggs, cheese, sour cream or yogurt.

They have good reason. A growing number of research studies on large groups of people indicate avoiding meat reduces the likelihood of battling cancer.

Last year, the National Cancer Institute released study results after examining 500,000 people for 10 years. The study concluded that eating large amounts of red and processed meats increased the likelihood of developing cancer. In the past few years, large studies in England and Germany showed that vegetarians were about 40 percent less likely to develop cancer compared to meat eaters. Additionally, Harvard studies showed that daily meat eaters have approximately three times the colon cancer risk, compared to those who rarely eat meat.

Vegetarianism also is suggested for cancer survivors.

When Mary Bobis of Farmington Hills was diagnosed with stage-four colon cancer in February 2007, her doctors recommended she stop eating meat, so she did. Now she's an expert at finding mouth-watering recipes that don't require any animal products.

"I've learned that 80 percent of cancer comes from the way we eat and the environment," says the 24-year-old. "And 20 percent is unexplained or genetic. I think because I was diagnosed at age 21, I fall into the latter group. I believe you can safely say most cancers are prevented by eating right and exercising."

It's not as difficult as you think to give up -- or greatly reduce -- meat intake, says James Tester, a Cancer Project educator who teaches a cancer-prevention cooking class Tuesday nights at Providence Park Hospital's Assarian Cancer Center in Novi. He says the key is learning the four new food groups -- fruit, vegetables, grains and beans.

"We promote changing all the way," he says. "It's a lifestyle change and you've got to go all the way. When you adapt this way of nutritious eating, you'll find an alternative for everything."

For example, Cheryl Heppard, a health coach based in Birmingham, advises clients who want to prevent cancer to switch from cow's milk to almond, coconut or rice milk. Soy products are abundant in grocery stores these days, but Heppard doesn't recommend them because of the bloating, gassiness and digestive problems they can cause.

Melinda Lewis, a certified health minister who teaches cooking classes at her Southfield home through Great Joy Health Ministries, suggests getting away from white processed sugar and trying natural sweeteners such as agave nectar and pure maple syrup.

Bobis, who was not expected to make it this long after a diagnosis more typical to people in their 60s, says changing the way she eats has sustained her.

"It changed my life," she says, "and makes me more aware of the causes of cancer and helps me feel better."

From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100107/LIFESTYLE05/1070319/Strategy-to-combat-cancer--Avoid-meats-and-dairy-products#ixzz0hKsWFLJB

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100107/LIFESTYLE05/1070319/Strategy-to-combat-cancer--Avoid-meats-and-dairy-products

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Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She’s the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!

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