There are a great many viewpoints out there about what constitutes a good cancer prevention diet. The things they all seem to agree on are eating copious amounts of vegetables, especially cruciferous and lower carbohydrate ones, avoiding sugar and overall moderation of total intake. Cancer cells feed on glucose. They weaken and are much more susceptible to the immune system’s defenses when their access to it is limited.
You will see recommendations to juice, not to juice but to have the fiber of the whole plants, to eat vegetarian, to eat keto, to eat mediterranean, to eat all raw, eat herbs, avoid herbs…the list goes on. These recommendations can vary widely on what proportions of macronutrients are recommended. How do we figure out what constitutes the best way to eat?
If what you take away from this part is what is generally agreed upon, copious vegetables (no, french fries are not a vegetable and neither is ketchup) avoiding simple sugars (including processed grains), moderating your caloric intake, and paying attention to how you feel and what you notice in your body in response to foods and adjusting accordingly, you will be doing pretty well.
Dr. Valter Longo, professor at USC and Director of Longevity and Cancer Research at the Institute of Molecular Oncology, Milan, Italy is one of the leading researchers into diet and aging, and it turns out, diet and cancer as well. In his book “The Longevity Diet”*, he lays out his 5 pillars upon which his research is based and looks at health outcomes for various dietary choices.
From his extensive research, he recommends a diet rich in vegetables, legumes, nuts, olive oil, with some whole grains and fish, and overall low in protein as the ideal way to prevent disease and slow aging. He also recommends (for most) to eat two meals a day, one at breakfast and then either lunch or dinner, and eating a low protein snack in place of the other meal. One meal should include 30g of protein and it should be consumed after working out. The reasons for keeping protein levels low seems to be straightforward in application to cancer prevention because this reduces the levels of IGF-1 and the activity of TOR-S6K.
One of the primary debates in the world of nutrition and cancer prevention is meat. Dr. Winters recommends including meat and cites that the quality of the meat, the means of preparation and the herbs combined with it make a difference in the outcome of how it impacts cancer in the body. Professor Longo recommends against it based on his research. I’ve never explored whether the studies showing meat is problematic have factored in whether it is organic, cooked below 300˚, or eaten with herbs. It would be interesting to know!
Autophagy is like Marie Kondo coming for a visit and helping you do the KonMari method on your cell structures. The cell parts that aren’t working any more are recycled or cleared out, reducing the risk of cellular changes that go awry. Autophagy is believed to be stimulated by calorie restriction and by fasting.
In recent years, the popularity of intermittent fasting has skyrocketed. Many people will be familiar with Dave Asprey, founder of Bulletproof coffee, which he came up with to help make intermittent fasting easier and to promote ketosis. He is also an author of numerous well researched books that explore fasting and intermittent fasting.
The research into fasting and intermittent fasting is ongoing, and the surprises keep coming, most recently that skipping a meal is associated with an all cause mortality increase. What the heck? Intermittent fasting is supposed to help!
Professor Longo is quoted saying “Fasting really in my mind is probably the most powerful way to reset and help regenerate, but also help clear junk and damage that is accumulated.” Here is an informative interview between Dr Longo and Dave Asprey.
Professor Longo’s research has resulted in the development of a specific fast mimicking diet (FMD) that is designed to give a person all the benefits of fasting, with less risk, and as or more importantly, less discomfort making it much easier to do. He has developed a product that provides everything you need to do the 5 day FMD to make it easy. I am more of a “do-it-yourselfer” and have found great information about the required macros and what others have done for their FMDs online. He does recommend against doing it at home, and he cautions on various other conditions/situations where it is inadvisable to do an FMD, so before you jump on the band wagon, see what Prof Longo suggests regarding these fasts.
In my opinion, it’s important to ask the questions, how have the studies on cancer diets and fasting been designed? Have they factored in not just what is being eaten, but when it’s being eaten, with what, how has it been prepared and what is the terrain of the person eating it?
I’d like to share a couple of examples from my experience. I grew up eating a mix between my Calabrian grandmother’s cooking and my Irish American – meat and potatoes – grandmother’s cooking via my mom, who admittedly didn’t like cooking and wished she never had to do it. Needless to say, I was way more excited about my Calabrian grandmother’s cooking, and that cooking was very similar to what Dr Longo describes as his ideal diet. I was always curious about nutrition, it was natural to me to read about the different theories and data on what different types of eating plans had to offer in terms of health.
In the mid 1980s we were all having the low fat (with added sugar to make it tolerable) diet shoved down our throats, I am wishing I had not tried that one on for size. Vegetarianism gained popularity, and influenced by John Robbins, who had solid ideas about the bio-accumulation of toxic chemicals as you go up the food chain, I opted to be vegetarian. I kept opting it for about 17 years. And then, my biology starting informing my brain. I knew all the reasons I wasn’t eating meat, and yet, after all those years, I started craving Italian sausage, uncontrollably.
Later, I would find out that my specific genome profile indicates metabolic dams for B12, folate, omega 3s and vitamin A; ways in which I cannot easily convert plant based nutrients for use in my human system. These conversions may be cake walk for someone with a different genomic profile. Translation: I was and am not a good candidate for vegetarianism. Other people are. I still eat more vegetables than 99.8% of Americans, it’s just that I do need some egg, fish or meat to get the nutrients I need. Even my naturopathic oncologist who often advises a largely or completely plant based diet looked at my genome profile and said, “vegetarianism is not a good strategy for you”.
My point here is that all the research in the world can show all kinds of benefits or drawbacks, but you are an individual, and what is best and ideal for you may be something different than the average population. Dr Longo does discuss choosing foods that would have been common on the tables of your ancestors. It makes sense! We have preferential adaptation for what our ancestors had adapted to for many generations. My nutrition genome suggested foods for me that I only ever ate at my cousin’s home in the fishing village in Calabria that my grandparents immigrated from.
I cannot remember whether it was in Longo’s book or interview, but I recall him mentioning research using genomics and how we will be better able to identify who would benefit from which specific kinds of diets and fasting. I’m so excited to hear a researcher talking about including the individual’s terrain in the mix! Apparently this concept has been a part of biochemistry research since the 1950s when Dr Roger Williams of the University of Texas coined the term Biochemical Individuality or Bio-Individuality.
In Part 2 I shared my experience with whole grains and my pre-diabetic blood sugars. My metabolic pathways for carbohydrate metabolism are compromised for every single one of the 17 measured pathways. What are the odds that if there are 3 possible ways each of these 17 pathways could land, that every one of them would be compromised? Any statisticians out there? My point is, you can probably safely and happily eat moderate amounts (not American amounts) of whole grains and have it nourish you well with no future problem. I cannot. I know I cannot because I measured that it was adversely affecting me. Whatever study Valter Longo does that includes small amounts of pasta and rice, etc, does not account for my situation.
Read and compare the different studies and opinions out there, see what resonates with you. But most importantly, come to understand yourself as best you can and apply what resonates in a way that takes into account your individual make-up.