Why are we so passionate about alkaline foods, alkaline diet, and alkaline lifestyle? The question should be: Why shouldn't we? Scientific evidence and clinical research that sustain the health benefits of maintaining an alkaline balance in our body are literally mounting. All around the world, and...
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The American Cancer Society has just released their new nutrition and exercise guidelines to Prevent Cancer for 2012. More everyday, scientific evidence is showing that, even with a genetic inheritance, we have the power to turn those genes that may cause cancer, on and off. Nutrition, and lifestyle, have a much greater impact in determining your chances of getting cancer than any other factor, including inherited cancer genes.
ACS Nutrition and Physical Activity Guidelines Evolve
January 10, 2012
By Colleen Doyle, MS, RD Today, the American Cancer Society released its 2012 Guidelines on Nutrition and Physical Activity Cancer Prevention. Based on sound science and strong evidence, our best advice to the general public to help reduce their risk of cancer through nutrition and physical activity is to:Yes, living an unhealthy lifestyle, and eating junk seems easier, and even cheaper. But lets not be fooled by appearances. Is it really easy and cheap? What is easy and cheap about getting Cancer, heart disease or diabetes? We need to reset our mindset, our lifestyle, and our communities. We need to make healthy eating and exercise a lifestyle, a crucial part of our everyday life. The American Cancer Society invites us to prevent cancer and other diseases, and to improve our quality of life, it is in our hands! So the question remains, what are you doing to make your world a healthier one? Has your family adopted new healthy routines? What can you do, starting today, to improve your family's chances of good health and longevity?As a matter of fact, for the majority of us who don't smoke, these are the most important ways to reduce cancer risk. In addition to these recommendations for individuals, also included in the guidelines is a key Recommendation for Community Action: Public, private, and community organizations should work together at national, state, and local levels to implement policy and environmental changes that:
- achieve and maintain a healthy weight throughout life
- adopt a physically active lifestyle
- consume a healthy diet, with an emphasis on plant foods
- limit consumption if you drink alcoholic beverages
- Increase access to affordable, healthy foods in communities, worksites, and schools, and decrease access to and marketing of foods and beverages of low nutritional value, particularly to youth.
Guidelines evolve with evidence Writing about this last night got me thinking about how our nutrition and activity guidelines have changed since we first published them in 1984 as we've learned more about how nutrition and physical activity impact cancer risk. One of the key changes is the evolution to an emphasis on encouraging a healthy dietary pattern as opposed to individual foods or nutrients to reduce cancer risk. As time has gone on, research suggests that it's likely the all those vitamins minerals, antioxidants, and phytochemicals working together that helps to reduce risk. Recommendations to live a physically active lifestyle have also been added to the mix, not only because we now know that physical activity helps to directly reduce the risk of breast and colon cancers, but also because of the impact that activity can have on weight control. The research on the relationship between excess weight and cancer risk has been evolving for quite some time, and now, there is no question: being overweight increases the risk of many types of cancer (and increases the risk of dying from cancer, as well). The emphasis on weight control within our guidelines has become stronger and stronger throughout the years - now topping our list of recommendations, above. Recognizing that the environments where we live, work, learn, and play have a huge impact on our ability to eat well and be active, our guidelines have come to include a Recommendation for Community Action. It's not enough to just tell to eat more vegetables and fruit and to get more exercise - we have to make it easier for all Americans to do that. Unhealthy behaviors easier than ever And this Recommendation for Community Action, added to our guidelines in 2002 and still included today, is perhaps the most important change that has been made to our guidelines since 1984. Why? Because since that time, it's become far too easy for us to eat unhealthy diets, eat too much, and not get enough exercise. And we're seeing the results of that. Since the 1980s, obesity rates have doubled for adults and tripled for children. Right now, at a time when it's estimated that 14% of all cancer deaths in men and 20% in women are related to being overweight, 64% percent of adults are overweight, including 28% who are obese. Sixteen percent of youth are overweight, and an additional 12% are obese. And research suggests that these kids will be overweight as adults, increasing their risk of a variety of types of cancer down the road. At a time we know that physical activity directly reduces the risk of two of the leading sites of cancer - breast and colon - and can impact many others through its effect on weight control, one-half of adults don't meet our minimum physical activity recommendation. And 44% of youth don't attend PE classes in an average week; 33% report watching 3 or more hours of television each day; and 25% report using a computer for 3 or more hours per day. For many of us, food is everywhere, and we can get it just about any place and any time. When I was growing up, I don't ever recall there being food at a gas station, and for sure, fast food restaurants were not open all night. Unlike my kids, I was not able to buy candy, sodas, chips, and other snacks at a store or in vending machines at my school. Many others of us don't have easy access to grocery stores that provide affordable, high-quality healthy foods, and that impacts the ability to eat well. Corner markets and the like typically do not have healthy affordable options, and on a limited budget, you can get a big bang for your calorie buck off a fast food dollar menu. Portion sizes are huge. Restaurant portions are typically 2-3 times what a standard serving size would be. And the more food in front of us, the more we are likely to eat (that big tub of movie theater popcorn can have up to 1,200 calories, and that's before squirting that buttery stuff on it!). We are bombarded with advertisements for high-calorie, high-sugar foods and beverages, especially our children. When I was growing up, we had 3 television stations. Now, my kids are being hit on TV, via computers, in movie theatres, on packages - and even in school - with ads promoting foods and beverages of low nutritional value. The majority of our kids do not have regular physical education classes, where they can not only be active and burn some calories, but learn lifelong skills that could help them live a physically active life. Many of us live in neighborhoods where it's not safe or even possible to walk or ride a bike. We design communities to make it necessary to have a car to get around. Personally, I used to live in a neighborhood that I had to drive out of to get anywhere. Now, my family lives in an area where we can walk to stores, restaurants, the dry cleaners. Not only is that a physical activity and health issue, it's a quality of life issue. Community action critical As a society, we must work together to change environments to make it easier for all Americans to live healthier lives. We need to speak up in our kids' schools about limiting the amount of unhealthy foods and beverages they have access to. We need to speak up at work, and ask for healthier options in our cafeterias and vending machines, and we need to ask for opportunities for physical activity throughout the workday. We need to speak up at our city council meetings and tell them that our neighborhoods need sidewalks, bike lanes, and parks. Why is this so important? Why is it so important that we work together to create environments that make it easier for all Americans to make healthy choices? Because following these guidelines can help save lives from cancer, not to mention heart disease and diabetes, as well. The science proves this again and again. What will you do, starting today, to try to create a healthier world - in your home, in your workplace, in your kids' schools, in your neighborhood? Doyle is director of nutrition and physical activity for the American Cancer Society.
- Provide safe, enjoyable, and accessible environments for physical activity in schools and worksites, and for transportation and recreation in communities.
It is easier to blame our health conditions on genes, or luck. But the true is we can control many of the things that go on in our health with our diet and lifestyle. In fact, 40% of all cancers are caused by our lifestyle choices. And with small changes in our routine and nutrition we can dramatically reduce our risk of being diagnosed with this scary disease.
According to the BJC daily habits provoke almost half of cancers
Controllable lifestyle choices such as diet and smoking are responsible for 40% of cancers, a study has revealed. The review, published by the British Journal of Cancer, reveals smoking as the highest lifestyle risk, with 23% of cancer cases in men being linked to smoking and 15.6% in women. Next highest on the danger list is not eating enough fruits and vegetables for men, and being overweight for women. Other factors include alcohol and occupational hazards such as exposure to harmful chemicals. Outcomes from the study show that over 130,000 cancers a year are caused by avoidable factors rather than being genetically determined. Author Professor Max Parkin said: “Many people believe cancer is down to fate or ‘in the genes’ and that it is the luck of the draw whether they get it. Looking at all the evidence, it’s clear that around 40% of all cancers are caused by things we mostly have the power to change.“ The best advice for men is to stop drinking so much, quit smoking and eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetable. For women, it was again to quit smoking but also focus on their waistline. Professor Parkin added: “We didn’t expect to find that eating fruit and vegetable would prove to be so important in protecting men against cancer. And among women, we didn’t expect being overweight to be more of a risk factor than alcohol.” Public Health Minister Anne Milton said: “By making small changes we can cut our risk of serious health problems – give up smoking, watch what you drink, get more exercise and keep an eye on your weight.” On the BBC’s feed of comments on this story, the opinion was varied. Many people complained about the study since it suggests the best type of lifestyle is not to have one at all, as everything poses some risk. Other users offered their own examples, some being cancer victims who had never smoked, nor lived unhealthily. Some comments on the board said this survey was “too convenient” and threatened to take away the public’s right to choose how to live, whilst others felt people who abuse their bodies should contribute more to healthcare costs.Living an active lifestyle, one where we routinely exercise, get sun, laugh and enjoy positive emotions, and eating an alkaline diet can cut almost in half our chances of getting cancer. Alkaline foods, water, exercise, sun, and positive emotions give our bodies the tools they need to stay heathy and defend themselves. There will always be those who reject this idea, why? Because they rather believe that it is their bad luck or their genetic inheritance that brought their health to where it is, rather than taking responsibility of it, and taking action. While there are some types of cancer that are not linked to what we can control, there are many that are. And even with those cancers that we cannot prevent, a healthy lifestyle can help improve our several health if we get them, and improve our chances of getting out of them. This is an invitation to change our mindset, and start thinking about the consequences of our lifestyle choices. Every cigarette damages our body. But on the other hand, every balanced meal, every walk in the park, every laugh benefit our body and help it heal. It is up to us to choose.
Cancer has little to do with fate, or luck. In fact, even genetic inheritance has been found to be weaker than lifestyle when it comes to your chances of getting cancer. More and more everyday we hear experts tie cancer to your nutritional and lifestyle choices. There are things we can do to reduce our chances of getting cancer, and even to revert it if it is already in our system. I invite you to read on, and make it a new year's resolution to prevent cancer in 2012, and every year after that, for a long and healthy future. This article I found from the Carrick Gazette talks about the correlation between cancer and lifestyle. I invite you to read in-between the lines, can you see how they are talking about an alkaline diet and lifestyle without directly mentioning it?
Lifestyles can beat cancer
Smoking is one of the most acidifying habits we can have. Among the many, many negative consequences we are aware of, it has an awful effect in our pH. Smoking steals the oxygen from our system, making it extremely acidic and vulnerable to cancer and other diseases. The article also talks about diets poor in fruits and vegetables, meaning diets poor in alkaline foods. So my message here is the following. Cancer strives in oxygen poor environments, meaning acid environments. Cancer cells cannot survive in an alkaline environment. Once we understand this, it is easy to realize that this is more common sense than anything else, and that we don't need to be nutrition experts to alkalize our everyday. pH means potential Hydrogen. Which in everyday terms can be understood as oxygenating. A higher pH means more alkalinity. What we want to aim for is to be more oxygenated, and to eat more oxygenated foods. Exercise is another way to oxygenate our blood and cells, as is breathing fresh clean air, escaping the city for a while. Water, H2O, has two atoms of Hydrogen. We should drink more water, and eat foods that have more water in them. In general, packaged, dried out foods are less alkaline than fresh juicy fruits and vegetables. In an effort to prevent cancer in 2012, how do you choose your foods? Do you have an easy general rule to recognize alkaline foods from acid forming foods?Published on Wednesday 28 December 2011 16:29New research has revealed how people in Ayrshire and Arran can help prevent cancer by making lifestyle changes. According to a study by Cancer Research UK almost half of all cancers diagnosed in the UK could be prevented by lifestyle changes. Smoking is implicated in one in every five of all cancer cases with smokers being 21 times more likely to develop lung cancer compared to non-smokers. It is not just smokers who are at greater risk. People exposed to second-hand smoke in the home are more likely to develop lung cancer than those living in smoke-free homes. The study found differences between men and women in terms of risk factors. the report found that in men, smoking and lack of fruit and vegetables in their diet were the top two risk factors. For women, smoking and being overweight were the main risk factors. Infection was a contributing factor in women because of the role of human papilloma virus (HPV) in cervical cancer. This study shows that many cases of cancer could be avoided by adopting a healthy lifestyle. Steps people can take to reduce their risk of cancer include: Eating more fruit and vegetables, Stopping smoking, Avoiding excessive, alcohol intake, Maintaining a healthy weight, Avoiding using sunbeds and protecting your skin in the sun, HPV vaccine is offered to young women to help prevent cervical cancer. Dr Carol Davidson, Executive Director of Public Health said: ”Every year about 30,000 people in Scotland are told they have cancer, and this number is rising. Cancer is the leading cause of death in Scotland. People often assume that cancer is unavoidable, perhaps with the exception of lung cancer, where the link with smoking is well understood. “This study shows that thousands of cases of cancer could be avoided each year in Scotland by people adopting a healthier lifestyle. “These lifestyle changes can also help reduce our risk of other common diseases including heart disease, stroke, asthma and non-insulin dependent diabetes.”
