How Foods Fight Cancer

For many years, researchers have been investigating how food choices
can help prevent cancer and, when cancer has been diagnosed, how
these choices can improve survival. While their work is by no means
finished, what is already known is nothing short of dramatic. Certain diet
patterns seem to have a major effect, helping people diagnosed with cancer
to live longer, healthier lives. Other diet choices are risky propositions,
increasing the toll cancer takes.

Our goal is to translate scientific findings into simple, practical steps
you can use in your own kitchen, at the grocery store, at restaurants—
anywhere you’re thinking about what to eat. We’ll divide this information
into eight chapters and include key scientific information, meal-planning
tips, and suggested steps you can take at home. We will also list recipes
that illustrate the key points in each chapter. Some recipes embody more than
one nutritional advantage, so we’ll list especially good ones in more than one
chapter. All the recipes (and more) are included in this book.

Before we begin, one note of caution: As we explore the role of food
in cancer, some people might feel a bit uneasy. If foods can affect cancer
risk, they ask, does that mean I am somehow to blame for my illness? Did
the foods I ate as a child cause this problem? Is our culture causing these
problems?

It is natural that concerns like these will cross our minds. However,
let us encourage you to set blame aside. The fact is, some people do their
very best to follow health-promoting lifestyles and still develop cancer.
And you may have known people who smoke, drink heavily, and eat with
abandon and yet manage to live to a ripe old age. Unfortunately, it is easy
to get cancer, and we cannot predict with certainty who will be affected
by it and who will not. So let’s focus not on blame but on what foods can
do for you. As Jack Nicklaus said, “You can spend all day trying to figure
out why you hit your ball into the woods—or you can just go in and
get it out.”

Certain diet patterns seem to have a major effect, helping people diagnosed with
cancer to live longer, healthier lives.

Research into food’s role in cancer survival grew from studies looking
at the causes of the illness. As researchers compared the diets of people who
developed cancer and those of people who remained healthy, they found
many factors that do indeed influence cancer risk. They also had an opportunity
to look forward to see how various eating patterns affect survival.