In October every year, pink ribbons are tied round trees and fixed to lapels, people walk and raise money, and we collectively remember and celebrate the lives of survivors of breast cancer, and those who have died. Wouldn’t it be great when this is a cause we don’t have to fight for anymore? Is that possible?
You don’t hear a lot about real prevention. Medical systems rightly promote early detection, (mammograms and self-exams for women, colonoscopy to find polyps and treatable early tumors, etc.), but the unspoken message is that early detection is the best we can do. In the waiting time between tests we can just hope we have escaped fate again.
This message is reinforced in subtle ways repeatedly in our medically dependent society. Public service announcements say things like “Early Detection: Your Best Protection.” But we could do equally well to put up signs in grocery stores that say “Delicious Cancer Prevention Available in the Produce Section, Scientifically Supported Real Prevention.”
Please understand: there is no magical diet that can 100% guarantee that a person will not get cancer. But there ARE specific choices of foods that, over time, will move someone OUT of the group called “more likely to get cancer” and INTO the group called “not as likely to get cancer.” That’s really good news, because anyone can do it. The other good news: eating to prevent cancer is also really good prevention for heart disease (the leading killer of both women and men).
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What does it really mean to prevent cancer? The easiest way to understand may be to imagine a long line of people waiting their turn to get into a twin movie theater. When the customers get to the front of the line, the ticket taker sends all the smokers into the movie called “high probability of getting sick,” and the non-smokers are assigned to the movie “low probability of getting sick.”
Now if you imagine yourself in that line, wouldn’t you want to choose the “low probability of getting sick” movie? Even though you know you still could become ill, you know your chances are better if you go with that group of people. And you get to stay with that group of people by behaving in ways that reduce your risk, in this case by not smoking. But here is a fact that is equally true but less well known: studies suggest that as many cancers could be prevented by good food choices as could be prevented by 100% of people stopping cigarette smoking. So you get to stay with the “low risk” group by eating in specific ways that have been studied and shown to reduce risk of cancer.
And for all cancer survivors to know, the American Cancer Society published information this summer about how the same strategies that prevent cancer can be effective in improving survival among those who already have a cancer diagnosis. This includes regular physical activity, which improves survival chances for those with cancer of the breast, colon, or prostate and more. And for those same cancers, it has been shown that eating a standard American diet (high in red meat, processed meats, fries, sweets, abundant baked goods, and low in fiber) leads to worse outcomes; but a plant-based diet such as a traditional Mediterranean diet improves survival. That healthy eating style also greatly reduces risk of ever having cancer in the first place.
Continue early detection screening practices, get medical care, and I also passionately hope that you commit to a life of being well by eating well, moving your body, moving yourself into a low-risk group, and tell your friends and family that they can choose the same.
