Life Over Cancer Blog

Core Nutritional Needs and How to Meet Them

March is National Nutrition Month, a month focusing on the importance of making informed food choices and developing sound eating and physical activity habits. 

We know that diet affects cancer both directly and indirectly. This food selection guide will help you choose specific foods and food groups that help alter your internal biochemistry from cancer-promoting to cancer-inhibiting, based on your core nutritional needs.

Need: Cancer-Fighting Phytochemicals

Recommendation: Eat a rainbow of vegetables, emphasizing brightly colored ones (pigments contain cancer-fighting phytochemicals), leafy greens, and cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, onions, and garlic. Choose locally grown and organic whenever possible. Try to get a mix of root vegetables, leafy green vegetables, and sea vegetables. Fruits should be limited to no more than two or three servings per day.

Is Flaxseed Toxic?

We recently received this question from a patient regarding concerns about flaxseed safety and side effects. 

Like many other foods, flax contains very small amounts of cyanide compounds, especially when consumed raw. Heat, especially on dry flax seeds, breaks these compounds down. However, our bodies neutralize a certain amount of these compounds, and the U.S. government agencies say that 2 tablespoons of flaxseed (about 3 tablespoons of flax meal) is safe and probably an “effective dose” for health purposes. 

In 1978 the FDA indicated concern about the cyanide in flaxseed. However, this concern was abandoned in 1982 when flaxseed was permitted in bread in levels of 10-12 percent. The FDA stated that there was no concern that there would be "…any more exposure to hydrogen cyanide than from other foods such as lima beans, fava beans, chickpeas, cassava, yams, cashews or almonds."

A lot of research about flax show little or no problems from eating it -- and actually has shown many benefits, including being a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, fiber, and antioxidants. Therefore, flaxseed/flaxseed oil is on the Block Center’s list of recommended fats, though, like all sources of healthier fats, we suggest it be used in limited quantities.

Healing Power of the Terrain: Stress Chemistry & Biorhythm Malfunction

The body responds to stressors – whether they be chemical, physical, nutritional or psychological – by secreting stress hormones. These enabled our ancestors to respond quickly to predators or other threats by producing an immediate surge of energy, and of course, comes in handy in modern times when, for example, a car swerves in our path or a growling dog jumps out at us. Once the danger has passed, our stress hormones return to normal levels. At least, they’re supposed to. But when the stress is chronic, so is the response.

Chronically elevated stress hormones produce a terrain that is hospitable to cancer cells. With your stress machinery stuck on high, continued exposure to stress hormones can severely damage your body and disturb your vital reserves of nutrients, hormones, enzymes, antibodies, and immune cells, all of which are essential to your recovery. For instance, chronically elevated levels of the stress hormone adrenaline increase levels of blood glucose and clotting factors, which are conducive to the growth and spread of cancer. Chronically high levels of another stress hormone, cortisol, make it difficult for insulin to ferry blood glucose into your tissues; this is tantamount to insulin resistance, which can stimulate tumor growth. In addition, cortisol suppresses some immune system activity and can increase biochemicals that support the growth and spread of tumors.

Curried Carrot Soup