FIVE EACH DAY

   It’s been known for a long time that people who eat the most fruits, vegetables, and other plant foods are less likely to get cancer than those who fill up on the other less wholesome foods.  Research suggests that eating five servings of fruits and vegetables each day reduces cancer deaths by 35%.  Another study found that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables slashes the risk of pancreatic cancer (a particularly deadly kind – in half).  The reason why plant foods offer such powerful cancer protection is because certain substances found only in plant foods and known collectively as phytonutrient (phyto – a Greek word meaning plant – have the ability to stop cancer.)  Eating just one serving of watermelon or pink grapefruit a day, research has shown, can reduce a man’s risk of developing prostate cancer by 82%.  Both these fruits are high in a phytonutrient called lycopene.  The month of November is a reminder for men to get a checkup and to caution each other about the need for a medical checkup.  Many men are growing a mustache or facial hair of some kind to remind their counterparts that a checkup would be a good idea.

  While we are shopping near the vegetable bins we could check out some mushrooms that pack quite a punch when it comes to preventing breast cancer.  Researchers in Hope, California, a Duarte, California, a cancer treatment center, have found that the mushrooms suppress estrogen production, particularly in post menopausal women.  Mushrooms contain a phytochemical called conjugated linoleic acid that inhibits aromatase, the protein in the body that makes estrogen, says Dr. Shiuan Chen, PhD, director of the department of surgical research at City of Hope.  Shitake mushrooms have long been used in Japan to shrink tumors.  These large meaty black mushrooms contain a complex sugar called lentinan.  Dr. Robert Murphy, ND, a naturopathic doctor in Torrington, Connecticut said that tumor growth is inhibited when they fed lentinan in the form of dried mushroom powder to laboratory animals. 

   Vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, kale or turnips are excellent vegetables to serve several times a week.  A dash of Parmesan cheese or other favorite flavoring can encourage children to like them.  Harvard Medical School researchers suspect that these cruciferous vegetables protect from acquiring many forms of cancer.