surviveCANCER Foundation

One of the keys to surviving cancer is the alteration of eating habits (nutrition). We are creatures of habit and that habit is primarily dictated by society. Any time you turn on a television, a radio, open a newspaper or magazine, you are assaulted by the “junk food” industry. Part of my past life was working as a store manager for several major chains. Prior to cancer, there were not many who ate more junk food than I.

I do not believe that the bad diet actually caused the cancer to happen, but I can assure you upon diligent research that my eating habits certainly fed the cancer in my body. No question about it.

The further I have followed the research, the more I have discovered that nutrition plays a very, very significant role in fighting all forms of disease in general. The actual statistics published by the AMA show that 73% of all diseases are directly related to nutrition. Yet, as noted on our website elsewhere, the average medical doctor receives a total of 2 ½ hours of coursework during his entire medical career studying nutrition and its effects.

I recently heard Andrew Weil speak on NPR. He too stated that while in Harvard Medical School, he received one lecture on nutrition that lasted approximately ½ hour. That was it! What is wrong with this picture? Who is kidding who? The very governing body of the medical profession says that ¾ of all diseases we get are related to our diets yet nobody is trained in nutrition.

I wish I had started counting earlier on in the process, but I have had literally SCORES of people tell me that their cancer doctors have told them that nutrition is not really important. A very large number of these same doctors have even gone so far as to tell people that eating right/well actually just feeds the cancer and makes it grow faster. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Hand in hand with this subject is the food we purchase from the local store. I just completed a very “unscientific” study of the keeping properties of “fresh” tomatoes. If you have ever gardened or purchased fresh tomatoes from a roadside stand that are naturally grown, you know that the storage life of really ripe, juicy tomatoes is measured in days. I went to the local grocery store and bought 6 Roma tomatoes and set them in the refrigerator. In 7 weeks, NOT days, two developed mold on one end and the balance just shriveled up. WHY , is the question to ask yourself.

Part of the answer lies in genetic alteration of what are known as heirloom stock. Heirloom seeds/plants are the original, unaltered, untreated plants as were grown for literally centuries. Today, however with the advent of hybrids, you can get faster growth, deeper color, and when gene alteration takes place or special treatment programs are introduced, you can literally alter the chemical makeup of the fruit itself. Newer is not necessarily better. Also adding to the issue is the use of commercially manufactured fertilizer.

For centuries, man used organic fertilizers (manure, composted vegetation, etc…) to replenish the soils. But with the rise of agribusiness replacing the small farmers starting in the 30’s with the depression, came the need to boost productivity and reduce costs. At least those were considered the driving forces to increased output. That increase in output brought a decrease in natural nutrients in the soil to feed the plants and the downward spiral began.

The soil we raise things in has been depleted. That is why fertilizers are used today where 75 years ago, they were unheard of. If you farmed, you used manure from livestock, not chemicals out of a bag. It’s just like taking supplements and vitamins from a bottle rather than natural food sources. If you take in only vitamin C, for instance, rather than eating an orange, you still get the C. BUT you miss all the other phytonutrients and bioflavinoids that naturally occur that synergize with the C in the orange. The same thing happens when you replace natural nutrients in the soil with chemicals. The natural nutrients derived from dead/decaying plant matter have a plethora of other trace elements and microorganisms that no chemical can replicate. Those same trace minerals/elements are taken up into the plant and stored in each living cell. When you use chemicals, the chemicals are stored in those cells. Similar but definitely not matching.

Commercially grown vegetables can have over 1,500 chemicals sprayed on them or used in the nutrients to feed them that do not need to be reported. EVERY SINGLE CHEMICAL USED IS A HEALTH HAZARD! Every last chemical is a poison that is registered with poison control center as potentially fatal, some simply by contact.

There has been much written about this over the years, but for the most part, very few pay attention to it, myself included. Somewhere along the line, we as a culture and nation must wake up to the reality of what commercial farming has cost us health-wise. It will only worsen.

Point of interest on the subject of soil depletion and chemical fertilizers.

A farmer in New Zealand spent a great deal of time researching why a large number of his sheep were developing cancer. He was able eventually to pinpoint the cause of cancer in his sheep and that lead him to the cure. He was able to cause cancerous tumors in his sheep at will and he was able to make the tumors go away every time. The cause that he pinpoints is the simultaneous over-phosphating of the soil with artificial fertilizers and the simultaneous depletion of the trace mineral content of the soil. His book, Cancer: Cause and Cure, is a classic and I recommend it as a simple chronology of the events that led him to his conclusion.

I would never go so far as to make the claim that cancer in people is caused by the same factors, but it certainly is worth noting that here is an instance where soil depletion of essential nutrients and artificially rebuilding the soil with chemicals appears to be causing problems.

I have included a press release from the University of Texas, Austin dealing with this subject of soil depletion and its effect on nutrition.

March 1, 2006 - While modern farming techniques are producing larger and more perfect fruits and vegetables, the yield in terms of nutrients is declining.

Of the 13 major nutrients found in fruits and vegetables, six have declined substantially, according to a study by Donald Davis, a biochemist at the University of Texas at Austin.

Using data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Davis concludes that recently grown crops have shown decreases of up to 38% in protein, calcium, vitamin C, phosphorus, iron and riboflavin when compared with produce from past decades.

What accounts for this negative trend? Like any other competitive industry, farmers' attempts to drive up profits have led them to use new techniques to increase production, Davis said. The faster-grown fruits don't have as much time to develop the nutrients. "Farmers get paid by the weight of a crop, not by amount of nutrients," Davis said. He called this the "dilution effect": As fruits and vegetables grown in the United States become larger and more plentiful, they provide fewer vitamins and minerals. "It's a simple inverse relationship: The higher the yield, the lower the nutrients," he said. Davis said this happens because slower-growing crops have more time to absorb nutrients from both the sun and the soil. "Lots of agricultural scientists don't know about this, and the public doesn't know about this," he said.

Wheat Also Being Examined.

Jeff Cronin, at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said scientists and the USDA often overlook farming practices.

"Breeding plants to improve crop yield at the expense of all other things seems to be the problem, as well as depleting soil and not rotating crops properly," he said.

While Davis is not pleased about the decreasing levels of nutrients in produce, he still encourages people to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. "Even though amounts of nutrients have declined, fruits and vegetables are
still the richest source of protective nutrients, much better than eating highly refined foods such as white flour, sugars and fatty foods," he said.

Davis is currently researching the dilution effect in 14 varieties of wheat. His findings already suggest that, once again, the larger the yield of wheat, the lower the nutrients.

Related page:
The food, the bad < http://eartheasy.com/article_food_bad_ugly.htm > and the ugly - global warming may increase the size of fruits and vegetables, but the health benefits are diminished.