Diets High in Fruits and Vegetables and Breast Cancer

Question: A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association determined that going on a diet high in fruits and vegetables did not prevent the return of breast cancer in a 7 year experiment with 3000 women.  Comments? J.W. – San Francisco, CA Answer: This study is a perfect example of how to waste money ($35 million) and confuse the public by doing inane studies.  In short, given the conditions of the study, I could have easily predicted the results without spending the money, but then the clueless researches might go hungry. The researches were mystified by the results because the people in the study did not lose weight.  This is an important clue.  Anyone on a healthy plant-food diet with plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables will lose weight. These people did not lose weight because they were allowed to eat the unhealthy foods that drive cancer and overweight – sugar, white flour, processed oils and dairy/excess animal protein.  The women were allowed to eat meat and instructed to get no more than 15 to 20 percent of their calories from fat.  They failed to achieve this goal.  This failure means they were eating a lot of fat-containing meat and dairy and were consuming more animal protein than the body was able to use for daily repairs.  In excess, animal protein drives cancer.  In addition, there was no attention given to the quality of the produce consumed.  Was it canned, frozen, cooked, non-organic?  Quality makes a big difference.  Further, all of the women in the study had radiation treatment for their cancer, and radiation is a powerful cause of cancer, which greatly increases the risk the cancer will return and return it did. Vegetables contain chemicals that prevent, control and reverse cancer.  So why, after increasing vegetable intake, did this study not show positive results?  Primarily, it is because there are other factors that drive cancer and these were not eliminated in the study.  The people in this study were feeding the flames while trying to fight the fire – it didn’t work.  To be successful, you have to do two things – get off the bad diet and get on a good diet.