The Link Between Cancer & Food: Part 2

In Part 1, we touched on general nutrition and its affect on health and its relationship with cancer. As promised in Part 2, we will look deeper into the links between food and cancer.

Recent findings in the U.S. state that:

• 1 in 3 people will be afflicted with cancer

• 500,000 cancer deaths occur each year

• 1/3 are attributed to diet

• 1/3 are attributed to smoking

• 1/3 are attributed to other free radical causing factors

What is interesting to note is that cancer deaths from diet and smoking are also a result from free radical damage created by those habits. That being said the study could have just read that all cancer deaths are attributed to free radicals.

The term “Free Radical” is used to describe a molecule with an unpaired electron, making it highly reactive. This highly reactive molecule is constantly looking to find its missing electron. Free radicals will steal an electron from a neighboring molecule leaving that molecule with an unpaired electron that must now do the same to its neighbor. This can easily become a cascading effect and the process can get out of control. The free radical process is part of life and as long at it is kept in check, life can continue unharmed.

Free radicals are produced through normal metabolism. However, free radicals can also occur as a result of our exposure to toxins. In Part 1, we talked about the toxins we are exposed to as a result of today’s farming practices. But exposure to toxin is much more widespread than many of us think. We are all aware of the toxic affect of smoking, drinking alcohol, coffee and pollution. However, many of us are not aware, or choose to ignore, the potential toxic effects of stress and our daily food choices.

With continued exposure to the toxins that create free radicals the process of electron robbing gets out of hand. Every time an electron is stolen, damage is done to the wall of the cell. If the cell is continually being damaged, it won’t take long for it to begin dying.

As the dying cell struggles to survive it can mutate and as it divides it produces a twin of itself, in this case another mutated cell. Cancer is often referred to as a mass of mutated cells. According to Dr. Mona Harrison, MD, a normal cell’s electrical potential is around 6,800 angstrom. A cancer cell has a charge of only 1,800 angstrom. Every time a free radical steals an electron, the cell’s electrical potential is weakened.

Otto Warburg won the Nobel Prize in 1931, for his research into cellular respiration, showing that cancer thrives in anaerobic (without oxygen) or acidic conditions. During one of his speeches, Warburg stated that “All normal body cells meet their energy needs by respiration of oxygen, whereas cancer cells meet their energy needs, in great part, by fermentation.

Oxygen, the donor of energy in plants and animals, is dethroned in the cancer cells and replaced by the energy yielding reaction of the lowest living forms, namely the fermentation of sugar.” Free radicals cause mutations and, as Warburg demonstrated, cancer is the cell mutating to try and stay alive without oxygen.

Now the good news. Anti-oxidants are molecules that have extra electrons and can donate one of those electrons to free radicals in order to keep the free radicals from stealing electrons. Anti-oxidants are available in the foods we eat. At least in the foods that some of us eat! I can’t stress enough how important raw fruits and veggies are. Some of these raw foods are super anti-oxidants, typically the darker the fruit or veggie the better its anti-oxidant potential.

Numerous research studies have demonstrated that synthetic forms of Vitamins A, C and E lack anti-oxidant potential.

As we discussed in Part 1, toxins cause our bodies to become acidic which strengthens the free radical process. As our bodies become more acidic, we also attract less oxygen which, boosts the free radical process. While raw fruits and vegetables are alkalizing to the body and provide oxygen; they also attract more oxygen to our internal environment.

By now you should be aware of the importance of oxygen. However, if you need a little more evidence. One of Warburg’s colleagues, Dr. Manfred Von Ardenne, did research to show that the oxygen content in blood decreases with age as does the pressure the oxygen is under in the blood vessels. Von Ardenne went on to say that, “The transfer of oxygen from the blood to the cells is perhaps the most significant factor affecting health. The more damaged the transfer mechanism is, the more likely you will become ill. That is why you are more susceptible to illness as you age.”

Warburg, in the closing remarks of his speech stated that, “To prevent cancer, it is therefore proposed FIRST to keep the speed of the blood stream so high that the venous blood still contains sufficient oxygen; SECOND, to keep high the concentration of hemoglobin in the blood; THIRD, to add always to the food, even of healthy people, the active groups of respiratory enzymes.” Remem ber: Raw food contains enzymes and cooking food destroys them. There may be something to the old saying, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”

For more information about the Multi Vitamin Mineral Formula, and the Enzyme Probiotic Formula , please call (480) 603-1888.

Author Info

Tim Hawkins