Assault on natural health
I just reported to you last week about the latest attack on natural health with the selenium study, but here’s one that will blow your socks off!
A government study (need I say more?) has “found” that loading up on a fruit and vegetable diet—beyond their own pyramid-preach of “five a day”—provides no benefit in preventing the return of breast cancer.
This study included 3,000 women with an average age of 53 who had been successfully treated for early stage breast cancer. The women were followed over a 7-year period.
One group was given a daily diet to follow which included five servings of vegetables, 3 servings of fruits, 16 ounces of vegetable juice and 30 grams of fiber. Serving sizes were ½ cup, and they couldn’t count French fries or wilted pieces of green iceberg lettuce on a burger as a vegetable serving. Also, they were to keep their fat intake low—only 15 to 20 percent of their total energy intake.
The control group received educational materials about the “five a day” recommendation and the importance of following that guideline.
Both groups of women kept food diaries, but oddly enough, weren’t required to do it consistently!
Over the 7-year period, breast cancer returned in equal amounts in both groups of women—an average for both groups of 16.8 percent. Ten percent of the women died during the study, the majority of them from breast cancer.
The research team measured the test groups’ blood levels of carotenoids, which are fruit and vegetable pigments. (Basically, they wanted to measure their truthfulness in reporting!) It was found that they had 73 percent higher levels than the control group, who evidently hadn’t put into practice the education they received. They didn’t quite make their fat target, though they did eat 13 percent less in fat calories than the control group.
When it came to reporting their calories, though, they possibly misjudged what they were eating. There was an average weight gain of 1.3 pounds for the mega-vegetable group and 0.88 weight gain in the control group.
Due to the high amount of fruits and vegetables in their diets and the subsequent astonishment of the researchers that these women gained weight, I’m curious as to how the study initially defined a truly healthy serving of fruits and vegetables. Were group participants allowed to drink milkshakes as long as it had fruit? And their vegetable consumption: Could they bread and deep-fry their broccoli? Something else that’s interesting to note. The control group was given educational materials on the “importance” of five-a-day servings of fruits and vegetables. But if this study found no real benefit to fruits and vegetables, then how “important” are any servings?
Beyond that, the study also doesn’t mention what types of fats they were encouraged to eat. Were they healthy fats, or were hydrogenated oils considered to be just as good as olive oil?
But here is where the researchers get downright irresponsible: They had the gall to suggest that breast cancer survivors don’t need to go “overboard” on fruits and vegetables.
That’s outrageous, considering this is just one study that is entirely flawed. I hardly find it to be conclusive, considering the amount of questions it raises as to its initial design! To steer someone away from a healthier lifestyle makes little sense based on just one study. It goes against common sense—and all evidence to the contrary.
Are they saying mom and grandmom were wrong about eating your vegetables? I’d say they’re barking up the wrong tree if they’re suggesting that.
There’s still another problem that bugs me about studies like this. It has to do with primary vs. secondary prevention. I’d sure like to know what a lifetime of healthy eating does when it comes to preventing cancer in the first place. In fact, there’s a large body of evidence to support the protective effects against cancer of a healthy total diet high in fruits, vegetables, healthy fats and whole grains. So, this one study is hardly sufficient evidence to validate “giving up” on healthy eating.
I’ll tell you a little story about the miracle of food. And not just any food, but healthy food. I was at a medical conference making sure I was keeping up-to-date so I can keep you and my patients informed. I had the opportunity to hear a doctor speak about one of his patients who was a diabetic. Going on a raw foods diet cured this particular patient of his diabetes. You’ve read my thoughts on diabetes before and you know I think it’s one nasty disease, wreaking havoc on all your internal organs—as well as external!
Will a raw foods diet cure every diabetic? Certainly not. But this is my point: You are not made like everyone else. And time and again I have heard reports of an extreme healing diet curing someone of a disease. It works for some because of the way they’re made and what their genetics respond to.
These types of stories don’t have the drug companies backing them to test and study these results—because no money can be made from natural remedies and cures! But there’s something to be said about Mother Nature’s very own pharmaceutical lab and those foods and nutrients that have been honed over years and years to absolute perfection. Big Pharma, in its wildest, profit-drenched imagination, can’t duplicate that—even if the FDA makes it the base of its pyramid.
