HyperFoods: Machine intelligent mapping of cancer-beating molecules in foods
nature.com
nature.com
I prefer to say that a lack of fruits and vegetables causes cancer rather than they prevent cancer. Logically equivalent, but it leads me to consider them normal and packaged food abnormal.
Anyone can define normal for him or herself, but this way motivates me to eat more of them, as does discovering through experience how much more delicious they can be.
That said dietary studies are extremely hard to conduct in a controlled manner and thus replicate.
A diet which is heavy on plant based foods might be cancer preventative since you need to consume calories; additional plant material itself might contain molecules that help you combat cancer or at least serve as a barrier to potential carcinogenic pathogens.
As far as cancer and meat consumption goes it seems that pork and beef are the biggest offenders it’s not clear yet if it’s simply because they contain more pathogens which can impact humans as they are mammals or because those meats tend to be consumed at larger amounts.
Poultry and fish don’t seem to have as much impact with the latter showing no increase in cancer at all by most studies iirc.
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/d...
Fish cooked at high temperatures is also not good.
Which link various pathogens native to the species consumed to cancer in humans as apparently the compounds that arise from cooking or processing meat which also appear in poultry and fish do not increase cancer risk by as much (or at all) as mammalian meat especially beef and pork despite having the same or even higher concentration of these compounds.
If it is total nonsense, that would be great to know as well.
To the best of my memory, it goes along the lines of the following.
Most plant matter, in particular the parts that are considered vegetables(stems, leaves, roots), have a toxicity to prevent consumption by animals.
Many animals are immune to most or all components that would be very toxic if not processed by digestion, the liver, enzymes, etc.
But the act of processing the plant matter, in and of itself, minor amount of toxic residuals or derivatives from processing, or minor amounts of unprocessed toxins present that are not enough to be harmful in small quantities, keep organs and the immune system challenged and exercised, like how exercise keeps your strength up and your body challenged.
An exercised immune system and organs, while not perfect, are much better at keeping anomalies such as cancer minimal and fighting cancer overall.
But this is a detectable amount of damage, so it's not homeopathy.
I don't know if the idea of extreme dilution and water memory have always been a part of homeopathy. I don't believe those ideas have any merit. They seem like a perversion of legitimate herbal medicine. Perhaps I should have lead with that...
As a species we’ve evolved to piggyback off this process instead of doing the hard work of generating these protective compounds ourselves.
In reality, the positive impact on your metabolic, bio, age, and cancer markers of not eating anything (fasting) are marked and distinct as opposed to magical formulas of "dark colored vegetables" and "antioxidants" and "polyphenols" whose effects are difficult to ascertain at best and at worst are probably non-existent.[1]
If there were some combination of blueberries and red wine and pomegranates and acai juice that made us live noticeably longer, or more disease free, we would know it. We wouldn't have overlooked it accidentally. We are hardly the first people to think long and hard about the problems of aging. What we do know is that vigorous exercise and calorie restriction make people immediately healthier and less afflicted by disease - cancer and otherwise.
It's quite sad, frankly, how terrible and unacceptable that simple recipe is for so many people. People are, literally, dying to not exercise.
[1] For a good discussion of the inability for "antioxidants" to reach the inner portion of the cell where the "oxidation" occurs and for a discussion as to how bad that might be if it could happen (oxidation and free radicals are probably essential cell signaling methods that cause ill mannered cells to commit apoptosis, or "suicide"), I recommend the excellent book _Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life_ by Nick Lane.
It's not about eating more, but about eating different things.
Agreed. The strongest link being, restriction of over-eating. We've known about this link since before the time of Moses.
"Eating a lot of vegetables lowers the risk of quite some diseases including cancer and heart diseases."
Probably because one can only eat so much and the vegetables crowd out the meat and dairy in the diet. Probably not because of special, magic flavonoid chemicals.
Vegetables also contain a lot of vitamins and minerals that we require and a lot of fibers that are beneficial to gut bacteria. These are also linked to good health, so I don't think you you leave out vegetables, even if you wouldn't replace them with meat and dairy.
Please, it may be physically healthier to fast, but it's a very easy slippery slope into full-on EDs. Eat, but eat less if you want the benefits.
Physical healthiness is the metric I am optimizing for.
It's still advisable not to overeat, obviously.
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5064803/
[edit] typo
Brilliant book.
Your body needs food. Not soylent with a “cancer beating booster pack.”
Eating Kale, Spinach, or Lettuce won't have different “cancer beating” scores. Just eat leafy fucking vegetables.
People talk about actions gaining or losing X time from someone’s life. That should not be taken literally as it’s simply a way to interpret statistics. Much like how playing the lottery is a net loss of around 50% of the ticket price. That does not mean you always get 1$ back from a 2$ ticket.
The method can be improved, but after a certain point it's just a bad imitation of relative survival.
You can massively reduce your risk of diseases like diabetes or heart disease with a healthy diet.
Diet can also reduce cancer risk but the effect is much smaller so even with an ideal diet genetics and environmental factors can be more important.
I chose the highest concentrated and most common items among the six classes listed:
1. Carrot Cabbage Oranges
2. GreenTea Grapes Apple Peanut
3. Cucumber Garlic Tomato
4. Bean Lentil Radish Peas
5. Olive Soy Bean Potato
6. Avacado Peach Onion Rice
If I were to make a dried superfood, I'd want to combine all these together.