Casein - nation's most significant dietary carcinogen

"The link between dairy and prostate cancer is even stronger than the link between smoking and lung cancer!"

Is cancer caused by genetics or environment? Studies show that only 2-3% of all cancers are caused by our genes.  The other 97-98% of all cancers are caused by the environment.  The DIET is the primary environmental contributor to cancer.

Casein is the most prevalent (about 82%) protein found in milk.  It is different than whey protein in that casein digests more slowly and its structural composition is significantly changed when heated.  Casein is the protein most commonly used by the food industry.    It is especially high in cheese and is the part of the milk that curdles when processing.  Hidden sources of casein are found in foods such as McDonald's french fries, caramel coloring, canned tuna and fruit-flavored tums.  Casein can be listed with ingredients  that have "casein" in the name, such as: sodium Caseinate, Paracasein, Rennet casein and many more.  
http://www.livestrong.com/article/415916-foods-with-casein/  

Protein-enriched foods often use casein to increase protein content.  Low-fat and skim milks are not naturally white, so dry milk protein is added back into the milk to turn it white again - making it even more carcinogenic.

Collin Campbell, in the following video, provides graphs that demonstrate the incidence of cancer as it correlates to consumption of animal protein.  He also sites the Institute of Medicine / Food and Nutrition Board 2002 Report on Dietary Reference Intakes, "The report recommends that to meet the body's daily nutritional needs while minimizing risk for chronic disease, adults should consume 10 to 35 percent from protein...(and)...added sugars (for candy, soft drinks, fruit drinks, pastries, and other sweets) should comprise no more than 25% total calories consumed."  This report was influenced by the funding of a candy and soda company.  What goes on behind the scenes and who controls information is preventing the field of nutrition from being the premiere biological science of the future! Collin Campbell also quotes the results of a study on prostate cancer, "The consumption of dairy is the best predictor of prostate cancer."  In other words, if a man consumes dairy, prostate cancer is likely in his future.  The dairy industry certainly does not wants Americans to realize the link between milk and cancer.

Animal Protein--Meat and Dairy--Cause Cancer /  T. Collin Campbell

Dr. Pam Popper's Tuesday edition of video clips from February 12, 2013 highlights prostate cancer.  Dr. Pam says studies have shown that the link between dairy and prostate cancer is even stronger than the link between smoking and lung cancer!  The Wellness Forum recommends complete elimination of all dairy foods from the diet in order to restore health and prevent disease.

Dr. Pam Popper - Prostate Cancer and Stents

"Cow's milk is specifically designed for baby cows, and it supplies the nutrients to facilitate the rapid growth natural to cows." (Disease-Proof Your Child, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, pg 85)  Rapid growth of children, stimulated by high consumption of animal protein and fat (including dairy), has been observed in scientific studies.  The result of this rapid growth is a heightened risk of many cancers, not exclusive to breast, prostate, ovarian, and colon cancer.  

I find it interesting that experts in nutritional health can all agree on this one fact - milk doesn't do a body good!  Once a child is weaned (by age 2), he or she does not need milk and is no longer able to digest milk.  Legumes and green vegetables have an ample supply of calcium and protein to provide the needed nutrients for young children through adulthood.

If you are interested in replacing some or all of your dairy intake, I recommend almond milk.  It is easy to make at home and is most pure when you do it yourself.  Watch the ingredients label on processed nut milks as they often contain carrageenan - another carcinogen.  Here is a link to my blog post on almond milk.

Menopause, diet and stress

There are some parts of the world where women rarely suffer from the symptoms of menopause.  In fact, the Japanese recently added the term "hot flash" into their language because the symptom did not exist in their culture.  Other international cultures with rural pockets of people have been studied with regard to menopause.  Those who have maintained their cultural lifestyle (uninfluenced by western diet) have no symptoms of menopause - even to the extent that women of "menopausal" years feel that they have a new found freedom.   

Outside of having hot flashes and night sweats, menopause symptoms (such as fatigue, difficulty sleeping, hormonal imbalance, mental fog or trouble concentrating, headaches, bloating, depression, mood swings and memory troubles) are similar to the symptoms of eating a diet low in nutrition, high in animal protein, and high in fat and sugar.  Even acne in menopausal women can be related to the diet.  Perhaps it is easier to blame menopause for various symptoms rather than the diet because the patient would prefer to keep eating her rich foods and the doctor would prefer to medicate the problem.  There is a better way to deal with menopause.  Eating a plant based diet, rich in fresh fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains can provide all the needed nutrients to get a body back into hormonal balance.  Eliminating sugar, caffeine, butter, cheese, dairy and animal protein is also a very important change in the diet.  Caffeine, sugar and fat in the diet can trigger hot flashes and heart palpitations.  Animal protein slows the digestion down, causes the IGF-1 hormone factor to rise in the blood stream, and contributes to feeling fatigued.

Dr. Pam Popper - Hormon Replacement Therapy and Vegetarians Live Longer

Menopause is getting worse because the quality of the Standard American Diet continues to decline.  As a nation, we are eating more dairy, meat and sugar than every before.  Obesity is an epidemic, and so are the metabolic syndromes that go with obesity.  

Menopausal symptoms are also more pronounced because of stress levels.  Erin Lommen discusses the adrenal function and stress in this video.

Is Menopause Worse for the Current Generation?  Erin Lommen, ND

Stress cannot be managed if a person is sleep deprived.  Also, getting 8 hours of rest per night is not adequate if the first two hours of sleep begin after mid-night.  Go to bed at 10 pm to get the most productive night of rest - and reap the benefits of improved health!

Dr. Mercola has a couple of good articles on menopause.  The sencond article addresses the common use of soy as an estrogen replacement and the related dangers.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/12/26/Your-7Minute-Guide-to-Natural-Menopause-Survival.aspx

What about SOY?

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/08/23/new-study-shows-soy-no-help-for-bone-loss-or-hot-flashes.aspx

This article has a good summary of the risk of using HRT, the benefits of treating menopause with diet and reducing the chances of suffering from chronic diseases related to aging in women.  http://www.plantbasedhealth.com/index.php/suffering-from-menopause.html

Jeni Skues, via the Northern Lights Health Education website, has a good workshop on stress - offering good mechanisms to cope with stress from a Christian perspective.  Check it out! http://www.rev14.com/pages/Stress/Stress.html

Why detox?

Toxic substances are difficult to avoid in our modern world.  Toothpaste, deodorant, shaving cream, shampoo, body lotion, public water supply, dry cleaned clothing, amalgam dental fillings, plastic beverage containers, air fresheners, pesticides and cleaning chemicals are just a few of the endless sources of toxins that we encounter on a daily basis.  The mouth, the skin and the lungs are the most common ways that toxins get into our bodies.  In fact, the lungs are the most direct way to get toxins into the body as there is only one cell between an inhaled substance and the blood stream. 

What does the body do with toxins?  The body filters toxins via the liver. The liver will either send the toxin to the GI tract for elimination or store the toxin until conditions allow for elimination - storing toxins for a lifetime if necessary.  Some toxins are fat soluble and get stored in the fat cells.  God designed the body with the mechanisms necessary to protect itself from toxic exposure.  Three mechanisms of detoxification are:

1. Sweat - toxins are eliminated through the skin by significant sweating.
2. Lymph - movement of the body (particularly up and down) circulates the lymphatic system moving wastes and toxins to the blood stream and intestinal fluid.
3. Colon -  the liver can mobilize toxins which are carried via the blood stream and deposited in the colon for elimination.  Toxins can also be bound with phytochemicals (herb and vegetable source), seeds and blue-green algae to be eliminated with digestive waste.

Detoxifying is vital - Ty Bollinger

Eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, juiced vegetables, leafy greens, gellotinous seeds like chia and flax, or herbs like parsley and cilantro can stimulate the body to release toxins.  Eating properly while getting plenty of exercise (the kind that produces a good sweat) can effectively keep the body detoxified on a daily basis.  However, when a person is ill with a chronic disease, it is essential to jump start the immune system with lots of raw plant foods by consuming green juices, fresh organic vegetables and salads throughout the day. 

Here is one of the best explanations that I have heard regarding the coffee enema method of detox.  The Gerson Therapy is noted for this practice which provides a boost to the body's healing process.

Do Coffee Enemas Work? - Nicholas Gonzalez

Cabbages, anyone?

Cabbages of every kind are a staple food around the world.  This cruciferous vegetable is easy to grow organically or, if purchased at the market, requires low pesticide spray making it a healthful food choice for everyday.  Cabbage is economical as well.  It is inexpensive and goes a long way.  It is probably considered at great "winter" food because it can keep a long time in cold storage.  

Cancer-fighting benefit The nutritional value of cabbage is commonly thought to be little or nothing because its caloric value is low; however, this is a common misconception.  Cabbage is rich in many phytochemicals that offer cancer prevention. As cabbage varies, from green and red to savoy, so do the amazing health benefits.  The phytochemicals known to exist in cabbage are helpful for every type of cancer, not exclusive to breast, colon, bladder and prostate.  Someone who is eating vegetables to fight cancer should clearly consume from every variety of the cabbage family in order to benefit from the incredible spectrum of helpful agents.  The following quote is from the World's Healthiest Foods website (link below): "Cancer prevention tops all other areas of health research with regard to cabbage and its outstanding benefits. More than 475 studies have examined the role of this cruciferous vegetable in cancer prevention (and in some cases, cancer treatment). The uniqueness of cabbage in cancer prevention is due to the three different types of nutrient richness found in this widely enjoyed food. The three types are (1) antioxidant richness, (2) anti-inflammatory richness, and (3) richness in glucosinolates."

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=19

Preparations  Cabbage is a great base for just about any dish.  Chop it up fine and add it to soup, allowing the nutrients to remain in the broth.  It is most nutritious to eat raw in a salad or "slaw".  Replace noodles as a base in spaghetti with cabbage that has been lightly steamed.  Stir-frying is just as effective as steaming because the nutrients remain in the dish with which it is prepared.  Juicing cabbage is the best way to get the richest concentration of cancer fighting agents - in fact, juiced green cabbage has been used successfully for treating stomach ulcers.

http://www.naturalnews.com/027454_cabbage_ulcers.html

Important nutritional value  Every 3.5 oz of cabbage has 49mg of calcium.  Bok Choy is a variety of cabbage and it contains more absorbable calcium than cow's milk.  Cabbage is higher in vitamin C than oranges, it is rich in vitamins B1, B5 and B6 and it contains minerals such as potassium, manganese  iron and magnesium.  But the highest nutrient available in cabbage is vitamin K.  As more discoveries are made in the function of vitamin K, scientists are finding that it plays a vital role in our overall health.  Vitamin K is necessary to aid in bone maintenance and has recently been discovered to have protective benefits for brain function.  In search of a pharmaceutical to treat brain (neurodegenerative) diseases, the following abstract of a study indicates that vitamin K is able to rescue dying cells. 

Historically known for its role in blood coagulation and bone formation, vitamin K (VK) has begun to emerge as an important nutrient for brain function. While VK involvement in the brain has not been fully explored, it is well-known that oxidative stress plays a critical role in neurodegenerative diseases. It was recently reported that VK protects neurons and oligodendrocytes from oxidative injury and rescues Drosophila from mitochondrial defects associated with Parkinson's disease. In this study, we take a chemical approach to define the optimal and minimum pharmacophore responsible for the neuroprotective effects of VK. In doing so, we have developed a series of potent VK analogues with favorable drug characteristics that provide full protection at nanomolar concentrations in a well-defined model of neuronal oxidative stress. Additionally, we have characterized key cellular responses and biomarkers consistent with the compounds' ability to rescue cells from oxidative stress induced cell death.    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23327468

Some "bugs" you need to catch!

There are some fascinating studies on probiotics (the good bacteria of the  digestive tract).   Many studies have revealed that these good "bugs" have highly protective benefits in the human body.  Several bacteria have been studied and linked to cancer prevention, and specific strains are linked to  prevention of specific cancers. 

In an attempt to keep the optimal population of good flora in my digestive tract, I have incorporated water kefir (a fermented beverage with up to 50 strains of beneficial organisms) and fermented vegetables such as kim chee into my diet.  Being aware that the beneficial organisms put off lactic acid caused a bit of concern for me.  So, I started searching.

Beneficial Lactic Acid in fermented beverages and foods
Dom's site states that the  lactic acid in kefir is almost 100% L(+) type.  The concentration of lactic acid in kefir is estimated at 0.1%.  This type of lactic acid is utilized by the body and is beneficial to increase the metabolism of healthy cells while "choking off" cancer cells.  Furthermore, the lactic acid in commercially produced yogurt is the D(-) type which is foreign to the human body and cannot be utilized.  Consumption of D(-) lactic acid puts a strain on the metabolism and poses harm to the beneficial flora of the gut.
http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefir-composition.htm

http://www.helladelicious.com/our-food/2011/01/the-amazing-health-benefits-of-kefir/

Lactobacilli bind with Aflatoxin in foods

There is a mold that is toxic to the body and it is found in some foods, particularly rotting or spoiled foods, but can be found in some fermented foods.  Poor quality peanut butter is well known to contain this toxin, aflatoxin.  Many lab studies use aflatoxin to induce cancer cell and tumor growth.  In fact, aflatoxin is relied upon to induce colon cancer in lab rats for cancer research.

The good news about lacto-fermented foods and beverages is that the good bacteria bind with the aflatoxin and render it harmless to the body.  The following study showed Lactobacillus rhamnosus ability to  bind with aflatoxin.

"The probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG is able to bind the potent hepatocarcinogen aflatoxin B₁(AFB₁) and thus potentially restrict its rapid absorption from the intestine." 

(Appl Environ Microbiol. 2007 June; 73(12): 3958–3964.  Published online 2007 April 20)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1932713/

Other probiotic strains function in the same way, binding with other carcinogenic substances in foods such as the heterocylic amines that form in foods cooked at very high temperatures such as grilled meat.  The following study is an example of four strains that have this special power.

"The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of four different lactobacillus (LB) strains, namely Lactobacillus bulgaricus 291,Streptococcus thermophilus F4, S.thermophilus V3 and Bifidobacterium longum BB536...)

"The results of the present study show that LB are highly protective against the genotoxic effects of HCAs under conditions which are relevant for humans and provide a possible explanation for the reduced colon cancer rates observed in some studies in individuals with either high LB (Lactobacillus bulgaricus) counts in their feces or with a high consumption of LB-containing foods."

http://carcin.oxfordjournals.org/content/24/12/1913.abstract?sid=7334678b-f587-4b51-8913-efc5f9c3daf1

Probiotics offer cancer prevention well beyond the colon!  They have been found to help with breast cancer and liver cancer as well.

http://probioticrevolution.net/Cancer_Prevention.html

This website is a helpful resource of information regarding specific strains of probiotics and their benefit to health.

http://www.probiotic.org/

Amazing Discoveries, amazing link! You don't have to be sick!

My husband is incredibly talented at finding nutrition and health websites for our own personal inspiration.  He recently found a nutritionist couple, Rudy and Jeanie Davis, who  have established a non-profit, faith based ministry to dispel the myths about diet (as well as other current issues).  They are extremely easy to understand, their information is factual and applicable.  If you are looking for a way to cure your disease, go no further.  The following video series is an excellent beginning.  There are six videos in the series, available for free viewing.  I recommend going directly to the website which has a plethora of resources.  The link to the video series is right here.
http://amazingdiscoveries.tv/c/93/Removing_the_Mystery_Behind_Disease/


I took the first video of the series from YouTube and posted it here, in case you want to check it out on my blog before you go to the website.

You Don't Have to be Sick / Removing the Mystery Behind Disease

Rudy and Jeanie Davis

We are trying this recipe from their website, today.
http://amazingdiscoveries.tv/media/1023/339-raw-recipes-delicious-oat-burgers/

Kale chip with a heart!

My kale chip with a heart shaped hole

I made kale chips from some huge dinosaur kale grown in  my Mom's garden last summer.  As I was looking to boost my soup with some more nutrition today, I reached for a few kale chips to crumble into the broth.  There, in the center of one of the chips, was a perfect heart shaped hole!  Maybe a bug was chewing on it last summer.  Maybe it chipped off in the bag while it was being stored.  In either case, I think it is a sign.  :)  (This is just a little amusement.  I don't really put much weight into looking for signs unless they are the signs that God has given in the Bible.)  In any case, I am inspired by kale.

Today's tips

• Kale is very nutritious.
• Kale beats beef, pound for pound, in protein content without any artery clogging cholesterol.
• Kale also has some calcium value - as do other leafy greens.
• It can be added to soup in order to benefit from the most nutritional value.
• Kale can be cooked and blended with the soup broth to "hide" it in your soup.
• When eaten as chips, be sure to check your teeth before you have a conversation with someone.
• Chop kale into tiny pieces and add it to your salad.  Chew thoroughly.
• There are a few varieties of kale: dinosaur (also called Nero or Tuscan), Red Russian, and curly are  the most common varieties sold in the grocery.
• Kale has plant properties which feed the body's cells and gives them the fuel to heal, repair damage, burn fat and reverse cancer.
• You can get Vitamin A and C from eating kale.  Who needs orange juice?
• Kale is safest to eat if grown organically.

http://ecolocalizer.com/2012/03/25/delicious-nutritious-kale-photo-guide-to-different-varieties/

Cooking up great health with Dr. Joel Fuhrman