Whole-Food Guide for Breast Cancer Survivors (17 page)

Remember to keep your oils tightly covered in a dark-colored glass bottle. Exposure to air, light, and heat oxidizes oils
,
rendering them rancid, and rancid oils are potent provocateurs of inflammation.

What about olive oil?
Olive oil is rich in oleic acid, a member of the family of fatty acids called omega-9, which, although not classified as “essential,” provide great anti-inflammatory value. For this reason and all of its other wonderful health benefits, we highly recommend the regular consumption of olive oil. Like other precious oils, be sure to store it in a dark container.

For high-heat cooking and baking, we recommend organic coconut oil, which, although saturated, contains a host of healthy medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) and other beneficial components.

Lower Your Glycemic Load

Refined sugar and other foods with high glycemic values elevate insulin levels and put the immune system on high alert. Remember, glycemic load measures the impact of a food on blood sugar levels, and bursts of blood sugar trigger the release of insulin. High insulin levels stimulate the release of pro-inflammatory compounds; what’s more, they activate additional enzymes that raise levels of arachidonic acid, another inflammatory compound, in the blood.

A 2005 study from the Harvard School of Public Health found that women who ate high-fiber diets that were rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains had lower levels of CRP than women whose diets consisted of primarily refined grains (Esmaillzadeh et al. 2006)—yet another reason to avoid sugar and refined flour products.

Keep Your Antioxidant Levels High

As we discussed earlier in the chapter, free-radical damage is an unavoidable side effect of being alive. But you mount a strong defense against the oxidative stress and inflammation caused by free radicals by keeping your antioxidant intake high. By eating an Eating for Health diet that’s rich in vegetables and fruits, you’ll boost your antioxidant capacity in these ways:

• You’ll support the main antioxidant enzymes that the body produces internally: glutathione, superoxide dismutase, and catalase.
  
• You’ll get plenty of antioxidant vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients (vitamins A, C, and E; selenium; carotenoids; and bioflavonoids) from the colorful fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and seeds you eat.
  

Resveratrol
is a powerful antioxidant worth trying in supplement form. Produced in plants in response to environmental stressors, this compound has been found in dozens of plant species but appears most prominently in the skins of red grapes. Scientists have noted that it exerts a variety of anticancer effects, among them the inhibition of NF-kappaB, one of the harmful inflammatory compounds mentioned earlier (Gao et al. 2001). Bill Sardi (2007), resveratrol expert and author of
You Don’t Have to Be Afraid of Cancer Anymore
, recommends 30 to 50 milligrams as a preventative dose, and 300 milligrams or higher for those with an active tumor.

Don’t Forget These Key Nutrients

Be sure to include the following important nutrients in your diet.

MAGNESIUM

Magnesium is good for so many things, and inflammation is no exception. Researchers who examined data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999–2000, a US national survey, found that American adults who consumed less than the RDA of magnesium (approximately 320 milligrams per day) were 1.48 to 1.75 times more likely to have elevated CRP levels than those who consumed at least the RDA (King et al. 2006). This same survey found that 68 percent of the population surveyed consumed less than the RDA of magnesium. Remember your food sources of magnesium: whole grains (especially buckwheat and oats), nuts, beans, artichokes, and most green, leafy vegetables.

VITAMIN D

In chapter 5 we discussed how vitamin D can help enhance immunity and cell differentiation. It turns out it can do a lot more than that. Another significant marker of inflammation, known as serum TNF-α, appears to go up as vitamin D levels go down (Petersen and Heffernan 2008). This may help explain the role of this vitamin in the prevention and treatment of other inflammatory diseases, including heart disease, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

Monitor Food Allergies and Sensitivities

Any time you eat a food to which your body is allergic or sensitive, your body views the food as a foreign invader and mounts an immune and inflammatory response. There are many labs that will test you for food allergies and sensitivities (see appendix B), but you can also test yourself without too much fuss. Here’s how to do it.

ELIMINATION DIET

An elimination diet, described by Dr. William Crook in 1988, removes the most highly allergenic foods from the diet in an effort to allow your body to recover from any symptoms that may be caused by sensitivity to these foods. Sensitivity issues can include bloating, diarrhea, constipation, itching, mental fogginess, and cravings for a particular food. We encourage people to use a food log during this period to ensure the notation of any symptoms, their cessation, and their possible return. The foods typically removed from the diet are dairy, eggs, gluten (wheat, barley, rye, and spelt), soy, corn, red meat, peanuts, all other nuts, citrus, and shellfish. These foods are avoided for approximately twenty-one days. At the end of this period, foods are added back in one at a time every three to five days, while the return of any symptoms is noted.

ROTATION DIET

Rotation diets allow people to moderate how often they eat certain foods, with the aim of avoiding potential allergic or sensitivity responses caused by eating certain foods too often. By rotating how often you eat foods to which you may have a low-level sensitivity, you can reduce your exposure and your symptoms. This diet also allows you to clearly identify which foods you are reacting to, since you are eating them only every four to five days. In our experience
,
following a rotation diet can allow the immune system to repair itself through the avoidance of cumulative exposure.

Spice Up Your Life

A wholesome dose of curry may do more than add spice to your life. Although curry has been used extensively in Eastern cuisine and has been a staple of Ayurvedic medicine for centuries, we now recognize the active ingredient in it that is responsible for its potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects:
curcumin
.

Research in the last fifty years has repeatedly shown the ability of curcumin to suppress the COX-2 and LOX enzymes and to inhibit metastasis, or tumor spread (Aggarwal et al. 2006). For example, in a mouse study of breast cancer, 68 percent of the mice that received curcumin showed no or very few lung metastases. Among the animals that did not receive curcumin, 83 percent showed extensive metastases (Bachmeier et al. 2007).

Curcumin has shown such power as an anti-inflammatory, anti-metastatic, and apoptosis-inducing agent that it has been the subject of several clinical trials at MD Anderson Cancer Center (see, for example, Aggarwal et al. 2005). Not bad for a kitchen spice!

Boswellia, a powerful herb known as frankincense to our ancestors, is a premier natural LOX inhibitor. And ginger, yet another powerful LOX inhibitor, is also useful in lowering levels of the inflammatory substance PGE2 (Grzanna, Lindmark, and Frondoza 2005). Its power as an antioxidant adds yet another credential to its portfolio of anticancer activity.

While space restricts us from providing a detailed explanation of all the herbs and spices that can offset inflammation, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of botanical compounds that do exactly that. Use the following chart as a starting place to help you remember what to pick at the grocery, the farmers market, or, ideally, your own garden.

Table 8.1 A Few Suggested Anti-Inflammatory Herbs and Spices

Note:
Herbs can exert a variety of effects. Although generally regarded as safe, some herbs are contraindicated in pregnancy, some may cause allergic reactions in sensitive individuals, and others may need to be avoided due to interactions with pharmaceutical medications. Be sure to check with a knowledgeable practitioner before loading up on herbal supplements.

Exercise

While activity throughout your lifetime is important, activity at any age can help lower breast-cancer risk. Exercise does more than help you maintain a healthy weight: a 2002 study from the Emory University School of Medicine (Abramson and Vaccarino) found that people aged forty and older who exercised four to twenty-one times a month also experienced decreased levels of CRP.

Bringing Down Elevated Fibrinogen

Omega-3 oils found in flaxseeds and chia seeds, walnuts, salmon, anchovies, and halibut will not only help to lower elevated CRP levels, but also exert a mildly thinning effect on the blood by bringing down elevated fibrinogen levels. Since “thicker” blood helps cancer to proliferate, some former cancer patients also use
nattokinase
, an enzyme extracted from a fermented Asian soy dish called
natto
, to keep fibrinogen levels at a moderate level. Garlic, vitamin C, and the enzyme bromelain are also helpful in this regard.

To Do

• Monitor your levels of inflammation by asking your doctor to check your blood levels of C-reactive protein and fibrinogen. Thermography is also available in some communities to examine inflammation patterns in the breasts.
  
• Change your oil to keep inflammation levels under control. Choose monounsaturated oils such as olive oil (extra virgin) for cold or low-heat use, and coconut oil for higher-heat use. Avoid omega-6 “supermarket” oils, especially the “big four” that are genetically modified: corn, soy, canola, and cottonseed. Eat wild fatty fish, take a fish oil supplement regularly, or do both.
  
• Follow the recommendations in chapter 6 to keep glucose and insulin levels under control, because high levels of either promote inflammation.
  
• Be alert for food allergies and sensitivities as a possible cause of systemic inflammation, and test for them if you are suspicious.
  
• Use culinary herbs and spices liberally in your cooking, because virtually all herbs and spices have anti-inflammatory effects, particularly turmeric, ginger, and boswellia.
  
• Get sufficient rest and exercise in moderation.
  

Last Word

Eating for inflammation control is really just Eating for Health with a little extra fish oil thrown in. Easy!

—Michelle B., breast cancer survivor

9.
The Keys to Lowering Your Toxic Burden

Is life worth living? It all depends on the liver.

—William James

Chapter Goal: Promote healthy digestion, elimination, and detoxification—keys to cancer prevention

We’re all familiar with the phrase, “You are what you eat.” We might embellish it a bit by saying, “You are what you assimilate and are unable to eliminate.” In essence, we can absorb essential nutrients and eliminate toxins and carcinogens only if we possess vigorous gut and liver health. And although none of us is exempt from the consequences of faulty digestion and elimination, we can all take steps toward improving these bodily functions. In this way, we lower our cancer risk and improve our general well-being.

That’s where we’ll put our focus in this chapter.

Meet Your Second Brain

Your digestive system constantly works to break down food to release nutrients that nourish and energize your body. Digestion is controlled by the
autonomic nervous system
(ANS), the part of the nervous system that controls our involuntary bodily functions and acts as the main switchboard for signaling each phase of the digestive process. For the digestive system to work properly, the ANS and the digestive system must “dance” the digestion cha-cha-cha.

When the Digestion Cha-Cha-Cha Is Blah-Blah-Blah

The big picture is that the intestinal tract, once considered merely a conduit for the transport of food and nutrients, is a complex organism unto itself. An integral part of the body’s neuro-endo-immune system, it responds to both internal stimuli and stimuli from the environment. For example:

• It is estimated that over 60 percent of the immune system is located in the intestinal tract (Lipski 2005).
  
• Because of the intimate association between the gut and the brain, eating under stress constricts bowel function and diminishes immune activity. This is particularly unhealthy because being constipated can cause us to reabsorb bowel toxins (Gershon 1998).
  
• Incomplete chewing of your food places an unnecessary burden on your entire digestive system and can lead to systemic inflammation.
  
• Contrary to popular opinion, it’s actually a
  lack
  of stomach acid that causes heartburn and other upper GI symptoms for many people.
  
• The integrity of the intestinal wall must be intact for proper absorption of nutrients to occur. If the intestinal wall is too porous (from infection, stress, drugs, or toxins, such as chlorine), large protein fragments will get through it and go right into the bloodstream, setting the body up for allergies and inflammation.
  
• In our practices, we have noticed that about half of our clients over sixty years old do not produce sufficient stomach acid to adequately process their food. We’ve also observed that a minimum of 30 percent of our clients have an imbalance of yeast, harmful bacteria, or other pathogens inhabiting their intestines.
  
• Due to a number of factors, including using antibiotics and drinking chlorinated water, most of us are deficient in healthy bacteria. These beneficial microorganisms not only help protect us from pathogens (unfriendly microorganisms) but also manufacture vitamin K and some of the B vitamins. And, they help us eliminate excess estrogen.