Cancer Prevention by Diet???

[Mountain_Mike]

Phytochemicals - Vitamins of the Future?
HYG-5050-98
Sereana Howard Dresbach
Amy Rossi

Recently, you may have heard the words chemoprevention, nutraceuticals, and phytochemicals in the media. What exactly do these terms mean? With the ever-increasing interest in improving our health, it is important to understand these words and understand their function in health care. The information presented here will provide a basis for deciphering the mixed messages that are being delivered in the media, conversations, research, and education.

Research has demonstrated that cancer is a largely avoidable disease. It is estimated that more than two-thirds of cancer may be prevented through lifestyle modification (1). Nearly one-third of these cancer occurrences can be attributed to diet alone, secondary to our American diet of high-fat, low-fiber content. Fruit and vegetable consumption have been consistently shown to reduce the risk of many cancers (2). A major prevention strategy has been the "5 A Day for Better Health" program sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), encouraging the public to include more fruits and vegetables in their diet.

The American Cancer Society has developed guidelines for nutrition and cancer prevention. These guidelines are similar to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and include the following:

• Choose most of the foods you eat from plant sources.
• Limit your intake of high-fat foods, particularly from animal sources.
• Be physically active. Achieve and maintain a healthy weight.
• Limit consumption of alcoholic beverages if you drink at all.

More…

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/5000/5050.html

 

[Dawg52]

• Limit consumption of alcoholic beverages if you drink at all.

What about red wine? I thought I read recently that studies showed fat mice were living longer due to contents in red wine. As a result, I've been on a red wine binge lately.

 

[Cut-Throat]

I think there is more misinformation about food out there than anything else! - I also think that worrying about what you eat is probably more harmful than eating it.

If you maintain your optimium weight, you are probably good to go! - I don't think there are any bad foods!

My grandparents never knew what the word Cholesteral was. They lived to age 90 and ate pretty much everything they wanted. They were not overweight!

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

If you maintain your optimium weight, you are probably good to go! - I don't think there are any bad foods!

I agree , but would qualify it by saying there are very few bad naturally occurring foods as long as the proportions and diversity are sensible.

Put it in the hands of Kraft, Nabisco, or whoever and there are some realy doozies.

 

[wabmester]

What about red wine? I thought I read recently that studies showed fat mice were living longer due to contents in red wine. As a result, I've been on a red wine binge lately.

Well, the alcohol in red wine is a toxin. Probably the sulfites, too. Supposedly the good stuff is a phytochemical called resveratrol.

They're talking about making a pharma-grade resveratrol available in pill form, which sounds good to me. One theory is that it activates a gene responsible for DNA repair. The same gene that calorie-restriction diets may activate.

 

[marty]

Here is the resveratrol pill. http://www.longevinex.com/

From the company:

LongevinexTM is a stabilized red wine extract, providing the healthy properties of red wine without the alcohol, sulfites, headaches and calories. One serving of this product (one capsule) provides no less than 15 milligrams of stabilized Red Wine Polyphenols, which is equivalent to the amount of active ingredients in 5 to 15 glasses of red wine.

While many people would be happy to drink a glass of red wine every day, many others do not find this an attractive option. Also, after a bottle of wine is opened, the resveratrol will dissipate over the course of a day or two. So placing resveratrol into a stable form would benefit many people. Enter Longevinex™, a new dietary supplement.

Produced in an inert, nitrogen environment to eliminate exposure to oxygen during manufacture, Longevinex™ is also encapsulated in a patented, air-tight capsule. Longevinex™ contains both resveratrol and quercetin, another polyphenol that stimulates the sirtuin pathway.

The airtight enclosure provides the key difference between this product and others on the market. Bill Saardi, a spokesman for Knowledge of Health, Inc. in San Dimas CA, which is distributing Longevinex™, says "The pills offer the benefits of three to five glasses of red wine but without the calories or the headache." The cost of the pill is a little more than $1/day.