Food: Cheaper than Medicine

Medicine before WWII

The author-physician Lewis Thomas remarkably described in his 1983 book, The Youngest Science, the practice of medicine before the Second World War. There were only five effective medicines available: morphine for pain, quinine for malaria, insulin for diabetes, digitalis for heart disease and aspirin for inflammation and very little was known of their mode of action. For almost all other ailments, there was nothing available but nostrums and comforting words.

At that time, despite a well-founded science of physiology, we were still ignorant about the human body or the host–parasite relationship it had with other organisms. Wise physicians knew that letting nature take its course without intervention would often allow natural self-regulation to make the cure. They were not averse to claiming credit for their skill when this happened.

 An Editorial 25 Years Ago

Another clinical stimulus to basic research has been the growing realization that much of the world’s burden of illness is behavior-related. The Centers for Disease Control have estimated that about half the mortality from the ten leading causes of death in the United States is strongly linked to long-term patterns of behavior (life-style).Such known behavioral risk factors as cigarette smoking, excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages, use of illicit drugs, certain dietary habits, insufficient exercise, reckless driving, and maladaptive responses to stress are involved in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases and cancers as well as accidental disabilities and other disorders. Science Magazine Editorial, 2 December 1983

A doctor speaks on diet and cancer

The extensive research published in the last decade alone proves that what you eat can have a profound effect on your protection against cancer. It's a little-known fact that nutrition is barely taught in med schools, where the solution to most problems is a drug. And doctors don't trust patients to make lifestyle changes. I recall a conversation with a fellow physician at a conference after I spoke on the importance of a healthy diet in fighting disease. "You may be right, but people don't want to change," he said. "They just want to take a pill and forget about it."

I spent months researching the healing powers of food before I fully grasped my own natural cancer-fighting potential. I met with a variety of researchers, scoured medical databases, and combed scientific publications. I traveled all over the world and consulted experts from nearly every continent.

In my quest, I discovered that the list of anticancer foods is actually quite long. Some foods block natural bodily processes such as inflammation that fuels cancer growth. Others force cancer cells to die through a process that specialists call apoptosis. Still other foods assist the body in detoxifying cancer-causing toxins or protecting against free radicals. But most of them attack the disease on a variety of fronts. And they do it every day, three times a day, without provoking any side effects. To avoid the disease, it's essential to take advantage of this natural protection, and nurture it.

I've learned that the anticancer diet is the exact opposite of the typical American meal: mostly colorful vegetables and legumes, plus unsaturated fats (olive, canola, or flaxseed oils), garlic, herbs, and spices. Meat and eggs are optional. Through extensive research, I devised a list of the most promising cancer fighters, along with recommendations on how to make the most of their potential. Include at least one, and preferably two, at every meal, to maximize your protection.

Green tea is rich in compounds called polyphenols, including catechins (and particularly EGCG), which reduce the growth of new blood vessels that feed tumors. It's also a powerful antioxidant and detoxifier (activating enzymes in the liver that eliminate toxins from the body), and it encourages cancer cell death. In the laboratory, it has even been shown to increase the effect of radiation on cancer cells.


The day is coming where Inventor Thomas Edison predicted: "The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease."