Cancer cells are your own cells which no longer behave normally. One of the cancer-causing chemicals is derived from linoleic acid, which is found in many cooking oils. Corn, sunflower, safflower, and cottonseed oils are used to cook all the refined foods, fast foods, and packaged foods you eat. Fatty meats and farm-raised fish (which themselves are fed linoleic acid rich diets) are also big sources. On average, over 20 % of our calories now come from these refined oils and fatty meats, meaning that the typical modern diet is really the Pursuit-of-Cancer Diet. What to do? Retrain yourself not to think of fast food and packaged, processed food as “food”, but as toxins. Think you can’t afford to eat real food instead of fast food? Real food is a lot cheaper than cancer treatment!
Another 20% or our calories come from sugar and refined flour. Breads, pastas, pastries, pop, sweets. Cancer cells are entirely dependent on sugar for their growth. This is unlike normal, healthy cells, which can use simple carbohydrates like sugar for energy, but can also use complex carbohydrates (think fruit and vegetables), fats, or proteins. Refined sugar is so abundant, and so addictive, that we can now easily eat more of it than our bodies can use. Therefore, the exact same environment – too much sugar in the body – that causes obesity, causes cancer. What to do? Retrain yourself not to think of refined sugar & flour as foods, but as toxins.
This is not to suggest that the typical American diet is the sole, or even the primary, cause of cancer. Humans have been pouring carcinogenic chemicals into the environment for decades. Pesticides, petrochemicals, toxic ingredients in body care products, toxic chemical food additives, industrial pollution, probably even electromagnetic radiation pollution, can all be carcinogenic. These are the issues behind a cancer rate approaching one out of two people getting cancer in their lifetime. But if you want to fall on the right side of that who does / who doesn’t – a healthy diet is a great way to start. It isn’t very complicated. Start with real ingredients – fruits, vegetables, smaller amounts of proteins and whole grains – and cook them yourself. It isn’t punishment or torture, it is how people have eaten forever!