This isn't exactly fresh news; it came out last fall, but I've just seen it in a TV show rerun. What am I talking about? 10 official cancer prevention recommendations from the FMRC, a French organization which stands for Fonds Mondial de Recherche contre le Cancer (Worldwide Fund for Cancer Research). Apparently, this is quite big: the first time a major health authority has issued such clear, straightforward guidelines to follow if you want to maximize your chances of not becoming a statistic (1 in 3 Canadians will have one cancer within their lifetime, by the way). It's also big in that it plainly associates cancer (some types of it, at least) with the patient's food intake and lifestyle, a very simple, full of sense fact that many people nonetheless still deny.
There was one other über-important recommendation, which they stated apart from these 10 since it is so well-known: do not smoke, and avoid secondary smoke.
1-Be as thin as possible, without being underweight. (A BMI between 21 and 23 is recommended).
According to the TV show I was watching, this is quite edgy; most health bodies state that 25 is still fine, while this seems to imply that even the slightest pudginess can increase your risk. I thought it all depended on where your fat was located: a pear shape is better than an apple one, etc.
2- Be active at least 30 minutes a day.
I thought it would be even longer than that. It's not that much but I don't even do that every day.
3- Avoid sweetened drinks. Limit your intake of calorie-dense foods, especially ones with added sugars, or which contain lots of fat or don't contain much fiber.
In short, fast food, potato chips and soda are a no-no.
4- Increase and vary your intake of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes.
I always find it strange though that they don't mention pesticides in these cases...
5- Limit your intake of red meat (beef, pork, lamb), and avoid cured meats.
In short, red meat + salt + fat + nitrates = no good. But you already knew that, right?
6- Drink no more than one alcohol unit a day if you're a woman, two if you're a man.
7- Limit your salt intake.
8- Do not take supplements.
I'm a little surprised about this one. Is it because they are inherently bad or because they are simply useless and/or give people a false sense of being in better health than they actually are? But there are exceptions to that rule, like Vitamin D.
9- Breastfeed your baby(ies) for at least 6 months if possible.
Unclear in this case whether the benefit is for the mother, the child, or both...
10- Follow these recommendations very seriously if you are a cancer survivor.
Again, this is big, because it's the first time health authorities underline the importance of diet and lifestyle changes in preventing the recurrence of cancer.
I think we're doing well, probably better than most people. But there's definitely still room for improvement, not to mention that I would have scored very average or below average for most of my life...
Here are the guidelines, in French. These say that "most cancers can be avoided" through personal choices; that's pretty powerful stuff!
Friday, July 29, 2011
How well do you score?
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12 comment(s):
I have very mixed feelings whenever I read research and recommendations like this. On the one hand, I believe we all need to take responsibility for our own health and wellbeing. Particularly with things like smoking, where there is such an unquestionable link, I don't understand how people can justify it to themselves. But as someone whose mum has stage 4 breast cancer, I struggle with anything that can be seen as placing the blame on the patient. "Maybe if she hadn't drunk so much wine at parties, maybe if I hadn't rejected breast feeding, her cancer might not have come back." It's the same when people talk about a person's "battle with cancer" - so if you die, does that mean you didn't fight hard enough? Is it your fault that you got cancer and died? Most people would say no, of course not, but that to me is the unspoken implication of language and reports like this.
I have thought a lot about cancer in the last couple of years, more than I would ever have liked to, and I think my conclusion is, yes, it's hugely important to keep our bodies as strong and healthy as possible, although not at the expense of living your life (wine at parties, the occasional steak). But cancer is so sly, so malicious, so indiscriminating and so random that sometimes Cancer Just Happens, no matter how many legumes you eat. I suppose at the end of the day we are all flawed; all we can do is our best, and sometimes bad things happen to good people.
Thank you, though, for sharing this - it definitely does make me think about my own lifestyle and what I'm putting in my body. Which is important for so many reasons, of which cancer is just one x
So true... And sorry about your mum... :-(
Very comprehensive list, which I like. If I take it as an encouragement, that helps. If I take it as Bible, or as Kirsty said, as something that can cause guilt, it feels overwhelming.
Kirsty, thank you for your comment, you opened my eyes to something I hadn't really thought about before.
What an interesting list, Marie-Eve. I think we do quite well, better than most. (Not that we are competing with anyone but ourselves of course.)
It definitely raised some questions for me, though. For example, how do they define 'active'? Why should we not take supplements? And what about the sun? (I thought skin cancer was one of the big killers.)
The ones I should work on most are eating more and varied fruit, and limiting red meat. I never even think of red meat as bad for us, oops.
@Kirsty: I'm sorry about your mother :-(
We're probably above the average, but we could improve for sure... Exercising is something we're have a hard time finding time for these days, and it also means we're not as thin as we'd need/like to be :-(
About supplements: the thing is, food containing nutrients (also found in supplements) are shown to decrease the incidence of various illnesses, but the nutrients alone (supplements themselves) don't do as well. There are lots of other substances in food, some in very small amounts and not yet identified, that contribute to the overall long-term effect the food has on us. It's like comparing breastmilk to formula: formula does a good job at keeping babies healthy and it's made to ressemble human milk as much as possible, but in the small details, it's not the same and subtle, long term effects on populations (more than on individuals) are different.
About pesticides in fruit, veggies and grains: from what I've learned in environmental toxicology in grad school, I'm more concerned with pesticides in animal products, and especially animal fats. Most pesticides tend to bioconcentrate/bioaccumulate*, which means that their concentration will be higher in an animal than it was in the animal's feed (because the animal burned the carbs and fats in its feed for calories, but didn't metabolize nor eliminate the pesticides which stay in the animal). Most pesticides are lipophilic, meaning that they dissolve well in fat, so in an animal, often the fat will be where the bioaccumulation will take place. The liver is also a place where a lot of junk accumulates, eg some toxic trace metals. Even though it's a good source of iron, I don't feed liver to my children! (I still have a hard time resisting foie gras when it crosses my road, though.) Back to pesticides, in the late 1990s, I read somewhere that regarding breast cancer (breasts being a place where women accumulate fat, and therefore a pesticide storage place in our body), the amount of fat in our diet was related to the incidence of breast cancer, rather than the BMI itself.
*There is a difference between bioaccumulation and bioconcentration, but I'd have to find my textbooks in the basement to explain it... just in case some other nerd comes here and knows better than me ;-)
I value your input here so much... Thank you. :-)
@ Kirsty I'm sorry about your mom and agree 100% to Cancer happening. My father who ran 5 miles everyday, barely ate red meat, did not drink or smoke got diagnosed with Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer 9 years ago and "lost his battle". Cancer is such a tricky disease - the fact that it has to do with environment, genes + nature makes it even more tricky. Its not a communicable disease which we can cure by prevention. Its a ridiculously complex disease which can be triggered by 1 tiny thing turning on a gene which induces mutations/cell growth etc.
I have come to realize that all we can do is our best; exercise as regularly as possible, eat healthy, avoid carcinogenic agents, etc. But we must all be aware that sometimes our best will not be good enough. I should know that - my father (and sister - she had Breast cancer) was definately not good enough
I was weirdly nervous after I left that comment - thank you all so much for your kind words. My mum is doing ok at the moment so we're hanging in there! Enyamy, I'm so sorry about your dad.
So interesting to read all these comments and different thoughts on this. I know I personally could do a lot better with my diet and lifestyle generally (and Cate, yes, I'm also surprised they didn't mention the sun).
A very interesting list. They might have been worried about balancing sun damage with still getting enough Vitamin D - more of a problem far from the equator. Here in Australia the balance would tip the other way, as the sun is very strong.
With the breastfeeding thing, both mothers and babies are protected. Women's risk of breast and reproductive cancers is reduced (I think this is hormone related). For babies, breastfed infants are less likely to be overweight later in life, which helps with No 1 on that list. There is also evidence of protection against childhood leukemia - probably due to those extra immune system goodies in breastmilk. A quick google search brings up lots of articles.
Kirsty makes a lot of good sense.
As much as I understand why these are done, the tickbox approach to health irritates me no end, especially since our bodies don't know enough to follow these neat equations quite as they're laid out. It's easy to obsess over your health 'score', which is actually meaningless given the massive, and not well understood complexities of the interaction between our genes (lucky or not) and our environment.
Supplements are almost universally useless, bar folic acid in pregnant women and B vitamins in vegans. Some are even potentially dangerous in the ridiculous doses people take them at nowadays. (Why is Vitamin D supposed to be good to take? Only if you wear a burka most of the time, surely. Though, Canada...) And my understanding is that the research about pesticides' link to cancer is very unclear, that's why they're not mentioned. But all the rest (be slim, active, boringly booze-free, and a fruit/veg fiend, and avoid salt/sugar/too much fat/red meat/processed meat) is well proven, and just generally sensible things to do to maintain good health overall.
My favourite rule for good health, though? Everything in moderation.
I definetively think that if you take things with moderation... you'll be fine. I'm not fitness-holic but I do walk for 45 minutes every day and that has really kept me in shape ;)
thank you for this. so many lives i know have been so tragically effected by cancer. it is haunting. cancer totally Happens, but it is also nice to know little ways to try and maintain healthy habits, where it in concerned.
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