LIVING AN EXCEPTIONAL LIFE #70

By Rhonda Jones

I am in Cleveland at the National Health Association conference and have to say it has been a great experience with lots of good information. I come every year as part of continuing education, and I am never disapointed. The speakers are always well informed and bring a wealth of information. This year has been especially enlightening, and I want to share some of the great information that I have received over the next few weeks.

Dr. Joel Fuhrman is always a speaker at the conference and brings us valuable information that he has uncovered over the previous year in his research and working with patients. This year was no exception but the real treat was a lecture by his daughter, Cara, who is also a physician and a first-time speaker at the conference. Her topic was breast cancer, and I was blown away by her knowledge of the subject and the great information she brought to us.

The downside to breast cancer is that one in eight women will be diagnosed with having this disease. The statistics have risen dramatically over the last decade, and several factors contribute to the rise. Hormone replacement therapy for women increases the risk substantially for breast cancer, but one of the biggest risk factors is being overweight. Fat cells actually capture toxins that enter the body so the more fat cells in the body, the more toxins. Hormones also find their way to the fat cells so someone carrying extra weight will also have more hormones in their body and that will increase the possibility of cancer, especially breast cancer. Also, the hormones and toxins in our food, especially those in animal products, will build up over time and be stored in the fat tissue.

Insulin spikes caused by carbohydrate and fatty meals can also contribute to the breast cancer problem, along with high IGF-1 levels, that can rise substantially from meals with large amounts of fatty animal foods.

The Keto diet also seems to increase the odds of breast cancer as the diet causes tumors to grow at a more rapid pace. Animal fat and high fat diets in general, increase the odds of developing breast cancer and contribute to the spread of the cancer.

The good news is you can help protect yourself simply by changing your diet. Yes, you need to eliminate all the animal products (you knew I would say that) and add some superfoods into your diet. These foods can help suppress estrogen stimulation, inhibit excessive cell replication and help your body identify cancer cells and kill them before they have a chance to take control.

In addition to eating a colorful variety of greens, fruits, and vegetables, try adding foods rich in flavonoids such as lettuce, spinach, arugula, peppers, artichokes, onions, parsley, fennel, sage, cruciferous greens and citrus with skins and membranes. (Put that lemon and orange zest in all of your dishes!)

In addition, add whole soy products to your diet as soy as been shown to decrease breast cancer risk by 25%. Soy beans, edamame, tofu, tempeh and soy milk are good sources. Avoid soy protein isolate and highly refined soy products. Soy actually has the ability to block cancer growth signals and modulate estrogen receptors. In other words, it will direct saponins and isoflavones to the bones that need that nutrition and away from the breasts and other areas of the body that don’t. So, enjoy soy products regularly.

Glad to know there are things we can do to protect ourselves from disease. Next week, recipes!