Can Eating Cure Cancer?

The latest study reported in the British Journal of Cancer recommends the Mediterranean Diet, saying fruits, vegetables, cereals, and fish are good, and we should eat less red meat. Another study also commends broccoli.

However, currently there is no one 'superfood' that can stop you developing cancer.
But if you eat healthily, you have a better chance of a good recovery. The healthier your body is, the more reserves you have to fight nasty 'invasions'.

Fish comes highly recommended - BUT - having seen how farmed fish live, I would strongly recommend that if you buy salmon, ensure that it is organically farmed, unless you can afford wild salmon; Waitrose and good fishmongers sell both types in season. Looking at the fish counter in the average supermarket, you see how organic salmon is a paler colour, and fish farmers are given a chart to match the colour supermarkets think customers want. Me, I don't want any artificial colouring in my food, thank you.

If you like meat, try things like kidneys and liver; lambs' kidneys are incredibly cheap, and can be cooked in olive oil, adding more brownie points. Peas and beans also score highly, both are easily frozen, and recent studies confirm that frozen veg. have all the benefits of fresh, but in an easy form to store.

Sara Hiom, from Cancer Research UK, said "it shows there are a number of things you can do, and there is no one 'superfood' that can stop you developing the disease."

What else to eat

After cancer, patients say they are bombarded with diet sheets. Friends add to the confusion by telling you "I've just read an article that says you should/should not eat X - ranging from tomatoes to strawberries.

Anyone who wants their 15 minutes of fame will announce they have just carried out a survey that says eating grapefruit/apples/meat/milk/nuts or just about anything you name will/won't give you cancer.

I have a nasty suspicious mind. During my cancer journey I had been given diet sheets and advice from six different hospital dieticians. Surprise, surprise - advice sometimes contradicted their colleagues. So now I just eat what I want, which basically follows the usual diet eaten around the Mediterranean. Luckily I do love fruit and veg (sorry to be so smug!). So if you like what is supposed to do you good, go for it!

Milk

It's nice to talk to enquiring minds who challenge and investigate eating habits. Michel Montignac was the French scientist who first took on the Canadian research into Low Glycemic Index foods, and developed a diet that has kept French women (and Kylie Minogue) slim for twenty years. It is thanks to him that a lot of sensible dieting is now around, and talking to him over lunch recently I asked him what he is up to now.

"Milk" he said.

He says he couldn't understand why a food that for centuries had been regarded as essential for life, has suddenly been demonised. So he is carrying out detailed research on milk and dairy produce. Although milk doesn't feature so much in a Mediterranean diet, yoghurt is a staple.

He strongly suspects that the problems, allergies etc. that are being reported as being the fault of dairy produce, are in fact caused by the way that today many cows are reared on hormones and anti-biotics, kept indoors all year round, fed on 'made up' foods, etc. He strongly advocates that we don't forsake milk (unless we really have a dairy allergy) but instead change to organic milk.
So far, what I have read about organic milk bears out what he says. In a recently published book 'Eat Your Heart Out', Felicity Lawrence said that "you are what you eat" applies to cows as much as humans. In the past 60 years iron content of milk appears to have dropped by more than 60%, it has lost 2% of calcium and 21% of its magnesium.

On the plus side, if you drink organic milk, a recent study showed that on average, a pint of organic milk contained 68% more omega-3 fatty acids than conventional milk.

In many areas you can still order milk from a milkman - and this can be organic milk. Go on the web to find nearest delivery round, and support this very British industry. If we don't we will soon find that our milk is imported many hundreds of miles in a tanker right across Europe, coming from cows kept indoors all year round and fed on growth-hormones - and we will wonder what happened to our farmers. www.findmeamilkman.net.

Watch this space - Bon Appetit - and try snacking on fruit and veg to add the Mediterranean essentials to your diet.