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Feed your body, not the disease

Local experts share how food can help fight cancer, before and after diagnosis

By Tiffany Esshaki
C & G Staff Writer

» click to enlarge « Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital will host a class on nutrition and cooking for breast cancer at 6 p.m. Oct. 23 in the hospital’s demonstration kitchen. Visit www.henryfordwestbloomfield.com to register. Kale salads, like this one created by culinary staff at Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital, are high in cancer-fighting compounds and low in carbohydrates.

METRO DETROIT — Dr. Cynthia Browne, a radiation oncologist at the Van Elslander Cancer Center at St. John Providence Hospital in Grosse Pointe Woods, doesn’t always refer to meals as food. Instead, she might call them nutritional medicine.

That’s because what we eat, in her opinion, can be one of the most powerful treatments available to fight or prevent cancer. But patients and even some doctors can sometimes disregard the importance of eating a diet loaded with the good stuff our bodies need to fight disease.

“Most doctors know nothing about nutrition because it’s not part of our training and we don’t see much of it in our literature,” said Browne. “But food matters. You are what you eat.”

Browne said that when she sees a patient diagnosed with cancer who wants to be especially proactive in their treatment plan, she’s happy to share some tips on what foods help heal cells while fighting cancer and which foods could actually be helping tumors to grow.

“First, we need to prioritize. If you’re not getting air, I don’t care what you’re eating. If you’re dehydrated, I don’t care what you’re eating; you need to be drinking water. And if you’re not eating at all, I don’t care what you’re eating; I need to get calories into you any way I can so you have the energy to undergo treatment. But if all that is in order, then we can talk about protein and fat and micronutrients.”

The sugar situation
According to Browne, protein, fat and micronutrients are important parts of a cancer patient’s diet for a very specific reason: They prevent blood sugar from spiking. The more carbohydrates and sweets we eat on an empty stomach without protein or healthy fat, the more likely it is that the sugar in our blood will increase and give cancer cells fuel they need to thrive.

“Cancer feeds on glucose. That’s why diabetics who have high blood sugar have more cancer and worse cancers. It’s thought it’s because of the sugar in the blood, though it hadn’t been proven,” she said.

Because of that, Browne advises her patients to stay away from the popular health trend of juicing, since most times we tend to juice only the fruits and veggies that taste good instead of what’s truly good for us.

“Most people do fruit juice because it tastes good and it’s sweet, but nothing will raise blood sugar faster than juice. Even carrot juice and beets will do the same thing, because they’re also very sweet,” she said. “If all someone is juicing is spinach, watercress and parsley, that’s great. But that’s not what they’re doing.”

In lieu of those carbs, Browne recommends patients swap in quinoa and protein like fish and poultry, as well as high-fiber carbs like apples and raw carrots. All of those will prevent blood sugar spikes and also keep inflammation low, which she said is another factor that could hinder the success of cancer treatment.

“Inflammation drives cancer growth, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis — most of the disease we see in Western man,” she said. “We have an epidemic of people with heartburn, and that’s inflammation. Fairly simple changes in diet can make a huge difference in how people are going to feel.”

Nutrients come in real foods
Halle Saperstein couldn’t agree more. She’s a registered dietitian at Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital and spends a great deal of time advising patients not only on how they can best nourish their bodies during cancer treatment, but also how the foods they eat throughout their lives can help mitigate disease in the first place.

“There are so many foods that have anticancer benefits, like blueberries and quinoa and salmon. But we’re learning that it’s not those goods by themselves that (are healthy), but as part of a dietary pattern, which means consistence and combination,” said Saperstein.

Just like she tells kids, she advises adults healthy or not to eat a rainbow, or a diet packed with fruits and vegetables of all different colors — the brighter the colors, the more antioxidants.

As far as those fruits and veggies go, Saperstein said you should be getting five servings a day, though Browne said those battling cancer should be getting closer to nine or 10. Keep saturated fats to a minimum, Saperstein added, but don’t discount the benefits of healthy fats like those found in avocados and fish.

“Eating five fruits and vegetables a day has shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer by 22 percent in post-menopausal women,” she said.

It wouldn’t hurt to cut back on the red meat, as well, Browne said, to reduce inflammation. Saperstein agreed, saying that going vegetarian even one day a week can substantially reduce the amount of saturated fat in your diet.

Give a little, take a little
Breast cancer patients might also want to reduce the amount of alcohol and soy in their diets. Saperstein said patients with the BRCA 1 or BRCA 2 gene are thought to have an increased risk of breast cancer, and alcohol and soy can both be seen as estrogen in the blood, which fuels cancer cells.

“People with those genes maybe don’t need to stop drinking completely, but just be mindful of it,” she said.

Just like estrogen, which Browne described as a “cheerleader for cancer,” both experts warned of the dangers of incorporating too much plastic in food. While most people aren’t likely knowingly consuming plastic, it could be discretely seeping into our stomachs anyway.

“Don’t microwave in plastic containers or Tupperware, don’t store food in plastic, and don’t drink from plastic water bottles because when that plastic heats up, it gets into your water and food, and we often don’t realize what we’re doing with the intake of plastic,” said Browne.

Saperstein also said to try to buy food from the perimeter of the grocery store, especially when it comes to fruits and vegetables sold in cans. While many manufacturers are starting to sell food in containers free of Bisphenol A, or BPA, plastic, it’s best to play it safe and avoid having those compounds in your meals.

Avoid charring meat on the grill for the same reason, Saperstein added, saying that animal muscle can become toxic when it becomes crispy on the grill and could lead to consumption of cancer-causing chemicals.

Small steps toward a big goal
With so many things to avoid, it can become pretty daunting to feed your family an anti-cancer diet. Browne advises people to make changes where they can, and adapt an overall healthy lifestyle.

For Saperstein, that includes getting enough vitamin D, even if it comes in supplement form, and getting plenty of exercise. Both of those have been shown in lab studies to reduce the risk of breast cancer, among other healthful benefits.

“About 30-60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise a day was shown in a study to reduce the risk of cancer by 10-15 percent,” she said.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Tiffany Esshaki at tesshaki@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1095. 

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