An apple a day really CAN keep cancer away

An Apple a Day Helps Keep Cancer Away

    Here's yet another reason to really pay attention to nourishing your body while you fight cancer or try to prevent it: As much as 70 percent of your immune system is in and around your gastrointestinal tract. If you take care of your gut, your immune function will grow stronger. And that will help you resist all kinds of diseases, including cancer.

    Keep reading and I'll explain some of the best ways to support your GI tract. . .

Continued below. . .

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    Supporting the immune system is one of the reasons behind a new push toward eating probiotics and fermented foods. The primary goal is to restore a healthy crop of intestinal microbes (called "flora") to your gut. It's an important step toward maintaining good health and defeating cancer.

    Probiotics, if you're not familiar, are "friendly" strains of bacteria and yeast that serve our immune, endocrine, and neurological systems. Our modern diets and overuse of antibiotics have caused a massive decline in the level of healthy bacteria most people enjoy.

    Plus it's not uncommon these days to find people in the U.S. who don't consume any kind of fermented or cultured food. These foods contain yeasts and bacteria that replenish and support the vast colonies of microbes in your gut.

    When you destroy the healthy microbes in your colon, harmful strains of yeast and bacteria take over and inflict terrible damage to your health. You won't hear this from conventional doctors, but most experts in alternative cancer treatments believe if you want to defeat cancer, it's essential to have a healthy balance of intestinal flora.

Probiotics help you come through
chemo in better shape, too

    Probiotics are especially useful while going through chemotherapy, because they help protect the gut cells from the damage chemo drugs can inflict. Whether you suffer from late-stage cancer or you're healthy as a horse, probiotics help your body digest and absorb nutrients.

    Certain kinds of probiotics even help ferment fiber from our food, producing a molecule called butyric acid that's believed to help stabilize DNA during replication. This action alone reduces the changes that may lead a cell to turn cancerous. Probiotics also stop the growth of harmful microbes that create carcinogens.

    The best way to get probiotics is to either take them as a supplement, or eat cultured yogurt. Just make sure the yogurt has lots of live cultures and (hopefully) no sugar. The best bet is to make your own yogurt to ensure it's rich in live cultures.

    Certain foods, like apples, also promote fermentation benefits similar to what probiotics offer. You're surely familiar with the saying, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." That's because the skin of an apple has a lot of fiber, or pectin. Pectin is fermented in your intestines and produces short-chain fatty acids. These acids keep harmful bacteria at bay. They also nourish the cells that line your intestines, making them stronger and more cancer-resistant.

The new movement in fighting cancer with food

    It's a fact that the typical U.S. diet encourages many inflammatory diseases — not only cancer but also heart disease, arthritis and diabetes. That gives us all the more incentive to find ways to make sure we're really giving our bodies what they need to heal and stay healthy. At the very least, roughly three-quarters of Americans don't eat enough daily servings of fruits or vegetables.

    But along with an emphasis on fruits and vegetables, cancer patients also need a healthy intake of protein and iron-rich foods — otherwise, the patient becomes prone to anemia (low number of red blood cells) and edema (swelling caused by fluid).

    Worth paying attention to is the Eat to Defeat Cancer™ campaign, found atwww.eattodefeat.org. The premise behind the movement is that you can stop tumor growth and halt diseases like cancer by simply consuming the right arsenal of foods and beverages.

    It's a promising movement, especially since the advice is based on peer-review and published research. The main emphasis is on whole foods.

    Changing your diet is the least expensive way to reduce your cancer risk. And for those who have cancer, it's one of the most effective ways to treat the disease. But you shouldn't view it as a temporary thing. A lifelong commitment to a healthy diet is worth every ounce of effort it takes to make the switch.

    A bad diet while you're battling cancer is like putting water in the gas tank of your car. It fills you up, but doesn't give your body the fuel to do anything. Worse yet, many foods actually feed cancer and help it grow. Yet, it's easy to get overwhelmed by all the recipes and cookbooks that promise to help you defeat cancer with food. Maybe technology can help. . .

Power apps to fuel the fight against cancer

    We've come across a couple of cancer-eating plans you can view on a smartphone (Apple iphone or Android phone). So far, the offerings are not overwhelming but at least it's a start. And as the industry grows, smart phone apps may become an effective way to make reliable food knowledge accessible to those who need it most. After all, you can use them right in the store to help you make your food choices.

    From what I've been able to learn, these are two of the most powerful food-related cancer fighting apps:

• Ask The Nutritionist: Recipes for Fighting Cancer App:
  
  Developed by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (a mainstream, conventional outfit), the goal of this app is to help you get through treatment and stay healthy the rest of your life. Instead of being designed by an app-programming entrepreneur, this app was put together by board-certified dietitians. The entrepreneur with an open mind and no ties to the drug industry would probably be a better choice, but I'm happy to see that conventional experts are at least waking up to the food-cancer connection.
  
  Once you download the app, you get access to healthy, easy recipes for every meal possible, plus snacks. It includes step-by-step directions and shopping lists to make the process as easy as possible. You're also given tips on cancer-fighting nutrients and access to a frequently-asked-questions archive. As an app user, you can even ask the nutritionists questions of your own.
  
  This app comes with a unique premise, which is to find an optimal diet based on the type of cancer a patient has. It also has a search feature that focuses on specific dietary issues. So if you're battling nausea or fatigue, you can look up recipes designed to help with those symptoms.
  
  It's free to download, but only available on Apple devices like the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.
• Cancer Fighting Diet:
  
  This app is also an anti-cancer health guide with information on cancer-fighting foods. It includes content on causes of cancer and what the app developers call "vital cancer-fighting health tips that can save your life."
  
  This one is built for Android devices, but costs $1.99. It strikes me as mediocre compared to the Ask The Nutritionist app. But apps are constantly updated, so check back from time to time to see if this one has improved.
  
  Good luck, and good eating!