How important is it to choose organic foods?

Organic Food - Questions and Answers ABOUT FOODS AND CANCER PREVENTION AND SURVIVAL

QUESTION: How important is it to choose organic foods?

ANSWER: Buying organic produce is a good idea. It helps you avoid toxic
chemicals and improve the nutritional value of the foods you eat. Table  lists
twenty-four fruits and vegetables with the highest and lowest
levels of pesticide residue. Organically grown plant foods are not only
more flavorful than conventionally grown crops, they are more nutritious
and richer in cancer-fighting antioxidants and other phytochemicals.

Depending on where you live, you may find organic produce at your
regular grocery store. You can also look for affordable organic food at a
farmers’ market in your area or join a community supported agriculture
(CSA) group to receive local seasonal harvests. Not all organic farms are
certified organic, because certification can be cost-prohibitive for smaller
farmers. However, by buying local produce you can learn personally
from farmers about their farming practices and ensure that you are getting
safe fresh produce.

“Organic” meat is another story. Buying organic meat does not necessarily
mean that you are eliminating the health risks associated with
the consumption of animal products. For instance, heterocyclic amines
(HCAs), a family of mutagenic compounds, are produced during the
process of cooking chicken, beef, pork, and fish. Meat that is cooked
under normal grilling temperatures commonly contains significant quantities
of these carcinogens. The longer and hotter the meat is cooked, the
more these compounds form. There is also significant evidence that consuming
dairy products, conventional or organic, may increase blood levels
of IGF-1, a hormone in the body that has been associated with increased
cancer risk. And both meat and dairy, regardless of whether or not they are
organic, can provide considerable amounts of saturated fat and cholesterol.

Choosing a plant-based diet that is also low in pollutants and pesticide
residues will enable you to control some of the major factors that have been
linked to the risk of cancer and other degenerative diseases.24,25

To Do Discovering Dairy Alternatives - How Foods Fight Cancer

To Do Discovering Dairy Alternatives - How Foods Fight Cancer

Did you ever switch from whole milk to skim or nonfat milk? How did the
new version taste at first? For many people, fat-reduced milks taste watery
and a bit “off” at first. But after two or three weeks, what happened? The
new milk tasted perfectly fine, didn’t it? And if you ever went back to whole
milk, what was it like then? Chances are, it seemed too thick and fatty—
almost like paint.

It takes only a couple of weeks for your taste buds to accommodate to
new tastes. So if you try rice milk or another nondairy beverage, it will
probably not taste quite right at first. But within a week or two, it will taste
perfectly fine.

This week, take a trip to the natural food store (or a large, well-stocked
grocery store). If you normally drink cow’s milk or add it to cereal, pick up
a few different brands of rice or almond milk and give them a try. Notice
that they come in regular, vanilla, chocolate, and perhaps other flavors, as
well as low-fat varieties enriched with vitamins and calcium.

If you are a fan of yogurt, ice cream, sour cream, or cheese, natural
food stores stock nondairy alternatives for them, too. Some are more flavorful
than others, so try a few different types and brands and see which
ones appeal to you.
Discovering

Discovering Dairy Alternatives Meal Planning - How Foods Fight Cancer

Meal Planning - How Foods Fight Cancer

Meal Planning

■ Include calcium-rich greens (such as kale, collard greens, mustard
greens, turnip greens, bok choy, and broccoli) and beans in your
routine. Add greens and/or beans to stir-fries, sauces, salads, and
casseroles.
■ Have calcium-rich snacks, such as figs, raisins, almonds, and dates.
■ Replace cow’s milk with nondairy alternatives, such as soymilk, rice
milk, almond milk, or oat milk, in meals and recipes.
■ Sprinkle nutritional yeast on pasta and other main dishes for a healthful,
cheesy-tasting alternative to dairy cheese.
■ Try fresh fruit sorbets and nondairy frozen desserts instead of ice
cream or frozen yogurt.
■ Enjoy oatmeal and other calcium-rich breakfast cereals with fresh
fruit and nondairy milk alternatives for breakfast.

Recommended Recipes
Chocolate Mousse
Cream of Broccoli Soup
Penne with Kale, Tomatoes, and Olives
White Bean Spread with Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Discovering Dairy Alternatives - How Foods Fight Cancer

Discovering Dairy Alternatives - How Foods Fight Cancer

People following Western diets tend to
have high cancer rates and have begun to
blame not only meat and other fatty foods,
but also dairy products.

Most North Americans and Europeans grow up with the idea that
milk is a healthful beverage, and the dairy industry has certainly
done its best to promote that idea. However, researchers seeking
to understand why people following Western diets tend to have high cancer
rates have begun to blame not only meat and other fatty foods, but
also dairy products.

In 1998, Harvard researchers reported findings in a large group of
health professionals. Those who typically consumed more than two servings
of milk per day had a 60 percent increased risk of prostate cancer
compared to those who generally avoided milk.1 Two years later, a
Harvard study on another large group of men showed much the same
thing—milk drinkers had significantly more prostate cancer.2 Many other
studies have had similar findings, and researchers have also examined the
role of dairy products—positive or negative—in other forms of cancer.

Why would dairy products influence cancer risk? Is the problem due
to hormones or other chemicals in milk, or is it due to the basic nutrient
makeup of milk—its fat or protein, perhaps? What does this mean for people
who have been diagnosed with cancer already? And if milk does have
health risks, what should we use instead?

Reasons to Avoid Dairy Products - How Foods Fight Cancer

Typical dairy products (milk, cheese, yogurt, and so forth) are loaded with
fat and cholesterol, and researchers are discovering that dairy products
appear to play an important role in cancer risk. 

Harvard researchers in the Physicians’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study
found that men who frequently consume dairy products had a higher
prostate cancer risk. Possible reasons for this connection include dairy
products’ tendency to boost insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) production
in the body and the high calcium content of dairy products, which
decreases vitamin D activation. Breast cancer and ovarian cancer risk have
also been examined for their links to dairy consumption. Happily, soymilk,
rice milk, nondairy yogurt, and other dairy alternatives make the switch
easy.