Supplement Vs Food in cancer

Many health practitioners who treat cancer with alternative methods insist that no supplements are needed, only pure, healthy foods, while others disagree and promote the use of supplements. Personally, I see a third way: a program based principally on dietary changes and whole foods plus the use of specially selected supplements that have shown particular activity against cancer. My selection of supplements is based on hard science and numerous clinical studies, as well as in my own personal experience. For example, we now know that the anticancer activity of the different forms of vitamin E varies considerably. Some forms of vitamin E, such as d- or dl-alpha-tocopheryl acetate, have very little anticancer activity, are poorly absorbed, and may in terfere with other nutrients, while the d-alpha-tocopheryl succinate form of vitamin E has powerful anticancer activity, is well absorbed, and has the greatest antioxidant activity. The same can also be said for synthetic beta-carotene compared to natural forms.

We should also appreciate that we still do not know all the components in edible plants, nor do we understand many of the functions of the food components that have been isolated. By using only extracts of these plants, we may be missing an as-yet unidentified anticancer nutrient. In addition, the process of extracting the known nutrients could destroy some of the mysterious component.

One of the big mysteries of nutritional cancer treatments is why it takes so many fruits and vegetables in the diet to have any anticancer effect. Ten servings of fruits and vegetables add up to a lot of produce. Closely connected to this mystery is the difference between the cells of animals and the cells of plants. Most of the nutritious components of plants are confined within their cells, which differ from animal cells in that they have tough cell walls surrounding their membranes. Unfortunately, humans do not have enzymes in their digestive tracts to dissolve these cell walls. As a result, we cannot absorb most of the nutrients in plants.

This leaves us with three ways to extract these locked-in nutrients. First, we can mechanically break the cell walls by chewing all our fruits and vegetables until they are fine mush. Un fortunately, most of us chew our fruits and vegetables just a few times and then swallow. Second, we can cook our fruits and vegetables, since the heating process breaks the cell wall down. The disadvantage of this method is that you also destroy some of the nutrients and wash others away. In addition, you neutralize many of the plant enzymes, which have been shown to play a part in the anticancer effects of plants. Finally, we can me chemically break down the cell walls by either juicing our fruits and vegetables or liquefying them in a blender.

I have been impressed by the number of people with advanced, near-terminal cancer who have survived after changing their diet to include blenderized or juiced fruits and vegetables. With what we know now concerning the science behind plant phytochemicals and cancer, it makes a lot of sense. People who juice or blenderize their fruits and vegetables get a much higher concentration of the anticancer chemicals than those who just eat fruits and vegetables. In addition, most of the people who go to this trouble choose fruits and vegetables that are high on the list of the most powerful edible anticancer plants.

As we shall see throughout this book, many phytochemicals have a differential effect in that they protect normal cells from the harmful effects of chemotherapy and radiation treatments while greatly enhancing the effectiveness of the conventional treatments against the cancer.