Anti-cancer diets & the benefits of wheatgrass

Today's post is from Dr Britt Cordi PhD from Live Wheatgrass, which supplies top quality, nutritionally valuable organic superfood juices throughout the UK, Europe and USA.

You might have seen the recent Daily Mail article about what to eat to beat Breast Cancer.

I have dug down into some published medical research articles that review the evidence for an Anti- Cancer Diet. It is totally exciting research and I hope the whole world will read this.

One article, written by research scientist Michael S. Donaldson, entitled "Nutrition and cancer: A review of the evidence for an anti-cancer diet", starts off by summarising the findings having reviewed an impressive 238 published articles on the topic.  It concludes from the review that between 30-40 percent of all cancers can be prevented by lifestyle and diet alone! 

When diet is compiled according to the guidelines in this article, the findings indicate that it is likely that there would be at least a 60–70 percent decrease in breast, colorectal, and prostate cancers, and even a 40–50 percent decrease in lung cancer, along with similar reductions in cancers in other places.

The author concludes by saying that by following this diet, cancer prevention is certainly possible, and cancer reversal in some cases is quite likely.

How encouraging and empowering for us all!

The key factors identified in the review that give us cancer are:

• Obesity
• Nutrient depleted foods such as concentrated sugars and refined flour products that lead to impaired glucose metabolism (which leads to diabetes),
• Low fiber intake,
• Eating red meat,
• Imbalance of omega 3 and omega 6 fats. (Britt’s comment: Omega 6 is found in vegetable fats,  such as Sunflower, Safflower, Grapeseed oils!).

And those that lower cancer risk:

• Flax seed, especially its lignan fraction
• A large amount of fruits, vegetables and particularly green vegetables high in chlorophyll.
• Onions and garlic (Allium vegetables) and cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli (cruciferous vegetables) are  especially helpful.

And those that help to protect us against cancer:

• Selenium,
• Folic acid,
• Vitamin B12,
• Vitamin D,
• Chlorophyll
• Antioxidants such as carotenoids,
• Digestive enzymes and probiotics

The researchers conclude that such a diet would be conducive to preventing cancer and would favour recovery from cancer as well.

So this is what we should do

Donaldson mentions that one of the most important messages of modern nutrition research is that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables protects against cancer. He adds that the greatest message is that this same diet also protects against almost all other diseases, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes. He continues that particularly raw vegetables, were found to be protective and that 85% of the studies that looked into a raw vegetable diet found a protective effect.

Donaldson says, what is the result when all of these things are put together? What if all of these factors reviewed here were taken into account and put into practice?

This anti-cancer diet would have:

• adequate, but not excessive calories,
• 10 or more servings of vegetables a day, including onions, garlic, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage,
• Donaldson concludes- vegetable juices could meet part of this goal,
• 4 or more servings of fruits a day,
• high in fiber,
• no refined sugar,
• no refined flour,
• low in total fat, but containing necessary essential fatty acids,
• no red meat,
• a balanced ratio of omega 3 and omega 6 fats and would include DHA,
• flax seed as a source of phytoestrogens,
• supplemented with ~200 μg/day selenium,
• supplemented with 1,000 μg/day B-12 (methylcobalamin),
• very rich in folic acid (from dark green vegetables),
• adequate sunshine to get vitamin D, or use 1,000 IU/day supplement,
• very rich in antioxidants and phytochemicals from fruits and vegetables, including α-carotene, β-carotene, β-cryptoxanthin, vitamin C (from foods), vitamin E (from foods),
• very rich in chlorophyll,
• supplemented with beneficial probiotics,
• supplemented with oral enzymes

Comment by Britt Cordi: "Okay, so how do we get all of these vegetable into our daily diet? 10 servings per day!"

Well, juicing raw vegetables, and particularly green vegetables, adding a spoonful of omega 3 to the mix- is a hugely easy and very effective way indeed!

Some foods are particularly helpful to eat/juice as they contain a very high level of chlorophyll and other nutrients, there are the foods we call Superfoods and Wheatgrass Juice is a very good example of a superfood.

Facts about wheatgrass juice:

• 1 oz Wheatgrass Juice contains as much Vitamin E as 700 gr of broccoli; that is 12 times more than broccoli!.
• 100g wheatgrass contains weight for weight: 270% more Vitamin A compared to broccoli
• 1600% RDA of B12 – that is almost as much as in shellfish!
• 17 times more Vitamin B5 than banana
• 7.5 times the amount of precious green chlorophyll than broccoli

Wheatgrass Juice has been highly regarded for its nutritional properties for many years amongst health professionals. It is exceptionally rich in nutrients and chlorophyll, and is particularly rich in Vitamins A, B5, B12 and E.  When you drink our Wheatgrass Juice you will experience that it:

• Nourishes the body.
• Supports physical & mental performance.
• Encourages a healthy immune system.
• Supports healthy skin, hair & nails.
• Contributes to red blood cell development.
• Increases vitality to healthy levels, providing a tangible energy boost

You can order top quality fresh, frozen organic Wheatgrass Juice, which is delivered straight to your door on www.livewheatgrass.com  And when you use voucher code: yestolife, you will benefit from 1 week extra supply (worth £22.50). 

To read more about the benefits of wheatgrass have a look at this page: benefits of wheatgrass.

You can find Donaldson’s complete article here: Nutrition and Cancer - A review of the evidence for an anti-cancer diet.

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