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Writer's pictureKimberly Oen

Cancer and inflammation - the magic bullet in whole/plant based food. . . .






In 1971 Richard Nixon launched the war on cancer and stated that by the bicentennial year 1976, we would have a cure.  A ½ century later there is no cure for any major cancer even though 1 Trillion dollars has been spent on research and 3 Trillion in therapies over the 50 years.


What HAS been discovered as the magic bullet that can stave off and help cure cancer is a biological response modifier.  Scientists are trying to synthetically create these biological response modifiers (BRMs), also known as immunomodulators, which are the class of medications that target the disease-causing mechanism. They are used in autoimmune diseases as first-line medications or after the failure of conventional agents.


But we already have these BRM's. They are found in whole foods, food supplements and spices.  For instance gallic acid, rutin, and ellagic acid, known chemo-preventatives with anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties are in dark berries such as marionberries, boysenberries, loganberries and other blackberriesThese acids induce apoptosis or programmed cell death in cancer cells.  Fish oil omega 3 fats change the prostaglandin flow in the body and are more powerful than aspirin or NSAIDS or pharmaceuticals.  Prostaglandins are a group of lipids with hormone-like actions that your body makes primarily at sites of tissue damage or infection. Fish oil is a powerful biological response modifier that can help prevent and help reverse cancer AND prevent vitamin D and A deficiencies. (note: not all Omega supplements are alike. I carry a specific brand in my studio).


We already have biological response modifiers (BRM) in our grocery stores and farmers markets and they have high protective benefits.  But some critics may say "don't eat certain fruits because they are high in sugar and affect your blood sugar response." Lets take beets for example. There is not one study indicting beets for causing harm, however the nitrates in beets turn in to nitric oxide in body which is a powerful BRM that modifies the blood flow system.  Beets are a vasodilator - dilating blood vessels and making the blood flow more smoothly. Therefore they are beneficial for blood pressure.


Whole foods have synergism that CANNOT be synthetically reproduced by humans.  The more colorful fruits and vegetables, the more synergy. There are over 300 studies which show a diet rich in fruits and vegetables lowers the risk of cancer and other inflammatory diseases.


But what if you have tried plant based/vegetarian/vegan and felt bad, had low energy, etc. Then when you eat meat, you feel better and think "I must be a carnivore."


Apes are said to be the genetically closest species to the human DNA. They eat plants. The momma ape does not feed animal flesh to her baby. Baby calves survive on cow's milk and plants. And . . .

  • Elephants - Eat plants, tree bark, roots, and various types of vegetation

  • Bison - Eat 93% grass, 5% flowering shrubs, and 2% vegetation that hangs from trees

  • Deer - Eat grasses, bushes, trees, fruits, mosses, and nuts

  • Gorillas - Eat fruits that grow in the rain forest, bamboo, and celery

  • Hippopotamuses - Eat grasses found growing on plains relatively close to water

  • Horses - Eat grass and plants

  • Cows - Eat grass, hay, vegetables, fruits, and plants 

So why do humans eat animal flesh?


When you were born you survived nursing at your mothers breast milk for the first 6 months. Then at age 6 months, with all the love in your mothers heart and wanting the best for baby she opens that jar of baby lamb, chicken, or turkey and from that point on 3 to 4 times a day that jar is opened and animal flesh is put into the child's intestinal track. By age 3 or 4 the child may experience eating McDonalds' happy meals - a flesh based diet. Through childhood, adolescent, 20's, 30's and 40's you may be eating animal flesh 3 times a day. This shapes your metabolism in a particular way. When you bite into a chicken or cow muscle, a flood of muscle related molecules such as carnitine, creatine, and myoglobin are released into your digestive system. These are molecules that we humans make in all our muscles. But the animal muscle related nutrients flood through our tissues and never really clear out of our bloodstream.

If those molecules are always in the bloodstream, your own production of carnitine, creatine and myoglobin genes downregulate your own production to avoid TMAO (a metabolite produced by gut bacteria.) It's not a problem as long as these molecules are coming in. But say at age 40 you view "Forks over Knives" or "What the health" and the plant-based light goes on and that river of pre-formed nutrients are gone when you choose to stop eating animal flesh. Now your body has to create all of these on it's own. Most of us can up-regulate our gene function and it is not a problem, but in a substantial portion of people there might be a lag. Maybe it may take a few months to a year before the system finally gear ups and during that time we draw down on own tissue supply.


So what have we witnessed? An acquired dependency on animal flesh. Animal meat is inflammatory. Our guts are ravaged by the wrong food, antibiotics, sugar, alcohol, and saturated fat from animal muscle and flesh.  30 million pounds of antibiotics are fed to animals in the food supply chain every year to make them grow faster and survive in inhospitable environments. Through meat and milk, we ingest those antibiotics because they are heat tolerant. Our guts become leaky not only from the inappropriate substances we eat, but also from pharmaceuticals which ravage the gut microbiome. When we fix the gut, we see how health improves. 


Start slowly eliminating animal flesh from the diet and incorporate more plants to ingest these disease-fighting BRM's. Try once a day, go to a few times a week and slowly reduce your animal products from there. Incorporate more whole foods. Food from the earth that God blessed us with, not what man created. The top fruits and vegetables that are cancer fighting and anti-inflammatory have the most color. They contain bioflavonoids, carotenoids, polyphenols in the leaves obscured by chlorophyll (the green pigment) that allows plants to capture energy from the sun.  It’s in those pigments that reside the antioxidants fueling the BRM activity.


Eat well, live well, be well! Kimberly



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