Let’s Go Nuts and Fight Cancer
by Marilyn Diamond and Donald Schnell
America loves wars. Currently, we are so busy fighting the “War on Terrorism” that we’ve forgotten about the thirty-year long “War on Cancer.”
The “War on Cancer” was declared in 1971. It has cost taxpayers billions of dollars, and the only outcome is that cancer statistics have climbed from one out of eleven in the 1970’s to one out of two in 2002.
“From about 1 in 11 in 1970, to 1 in 7 in 1980, to 1 in 4 in 1990, to about 1 in 2.15 people in the U.S. who are expected to develop cancer in their lifetime in 2002. When will it reach 1 in 1 … if we let it?”
Don Weaver, To Love and Regenerate the Earth
In just one year, 1996, more Americans lost their lives from cancer than from war in the entire 20th century. Ten million had died by 1996 since the War on Cancer was first declared. One in two families will be presently touched by cancer, and one out of four babies will die of the disease.
This is a “WAR” we are certainly losing. This is a war we must wage.
In 1986, three professors at the prestigious Cornell University Medical Center were certain they’d discovered a natural weapon to fight cancer. They announced a naturally occurring remedy to stem the rising tide of the killer disease. Realizing that we were in the middle of an epidemic they announced their “cure” to the world.
The press conference never made front-page news.
We never heard about it.
We ask whole auditoriums of people if they’ve ever heard this news.
Essentially no one raises a hand.
Do you know about this?
The Cornell doctors recommended that each of us should be sure to consume more selenium then the RDI suggests. Selenium is a naturally occurring mineral. It should be found in soil. It should be available from our foods.
The RDI is the recommended daily allowance. It is set at 70 mcg of selenium a day for both men and women.
But research claims we need not lower than 200 and as high as 600 mcg for the antioxidant effect and to help prevent cancer.
Ask the average doctor if you need to take a selenium supplement. The answer will probably be, “No, just eat a balanced diet and you’ll be fine!”
Typically, the average doctor’s twelve hours of nutrition in medical school hasn’t kept pace with the thousands of studies in nutritional science. Unfortunately, many physicians are as overweight and under-exercised as their patients. Their rates of cancer are as high and, in some cases, even higher than the average population. Doctors need this information as much as the lay public.
The information is here.
The experts at Cornell University had proof that America could stem the rising tide of cancer, if each individual would consume about 600 mcg of selenium a day. Not 70 mcg, as the RDI erroneously suggests. Nearly 10 times the amount of the RDI!
This is potentially life saving information. One out of two Americans is now struck with cancer.
Now here’s the problem. Is selenium in our soils? Is it in our foods?
Selenium occurs most abundantly in soil containing volcanic ash. The soil in northeastern, Pacific, southwestern, and extreme southeastern regions of the U.S. are all deficient in selenium. In Canada, the north central and eastern regions are deficient. Food grown in these areas will also be deficient in selenium.
In fact the average American diet contains about 33 mcg of selenium a day. This is about one half of what is minimally required and 1/20th of the Cornell recommendation for cancer prevention.
Selenium has been shown to improve the efficiency with which DNA can repair itself after being exposed to damaging substances. This means your body can fight poisons better when adequate amounts of the mineral are available.
Poisons? What kind of poisons?
The toxic residues of all the denatured, artificial foods you eat, pesticides, antibiotics, bacterial contamination, vaccines, drugs, environmental pollutants. . .
The benefits are real!
A study conducted at the University of Arizona of 1,700 elderly Americans showed that those with low levels of selenium are more apt to have polyps in the gastrointestinal tract (33% compared to 9% in those with a high level of selenium). The same study showed those taking 200 mcg of selenium over 4.5 years have 63% less prostate cancer, 58% fewer colorectal cancers, and 46% fewer lung cancers. Overall, there were 30% fewer new cancers, and 50% less overall death from cancer.
The Health Professional Follow-up Study found that those men with the highest intake of selenium (top 20 percent versus the bottom 20 percent) had a 51 percent lower risk of developing prostate cancer. In a clinical trial, 1,312 people were given 200 mcg of selenium a day for four and a half years. They found a drop in prostate cancer of about 50 percent compared to controls not taking selenium.
Another study of 3,000 older Dutch people showed a reduction of lung cancer risk by 50% for those on selenium.
And in Finland, in a study of over 12,000 people, cancer deaths were highest among people with the lowest intake levels of selenium.
Selenium creates selenium superoxide dismutase, your body’s most powerful antioxidant enzyme. It’s known as SOD. Remember this acronym. It’s going to be BIG buzz for those who are savvy about health.
Selenium has the ability to bond with heavy metals in your body. You take these metals in from air pollution, cigarette smoke, or from the food you eat. When selenium bonds to hazardous metals they can be safely excreted from your body. If they are not excreted, they may damage your organs and even cause cancer.
Isn’t it time to listen to the scientists who are telling us adequate selenium intake can prevent some cancers? Why wait any longer to protect yourself and those you love?
The facts are in.
In areas where the soil is deficient in selenium, there is a higher incidence of cancer. Some cancers are caused by free radical oxidation, which selenium prevents. Selenium also encourages the production of macrophages, which “eat” foreign material that may cause cancer. Can you see the importance of eating foods containing selenium? When foods are highly processed, the selenium is destroyed.
Where can you find selenium?
Look no further than the naturally occurring, unprocessed Brazil nut. The average shelled Brazil nut that contains 12-25 mcg of selenium. (If you are willing to crack the shell yourself, the nut contains 100 mcg!) A one fourth cup serving of shelled Brazil nuts will provide your body with the selenium you need every day. The delectable Macadamia nut contains only slightly less selenium than its cousin from Brazil. Imagine that you can now enjoy Macadamias, knowing you are taking steps to prevent cancer! Selenium is also found in whole grains, sunflower seeds, and garlic.
But nuts are so fattening!
Really?
They are, if they’re roasted.
They are, if you eat them as a snack between a lunch of Beef Tacos and a dinner of pork chops. If you eat them raw, not as a snack, but as part of a seriously healthy meal, they’re not fattening at all. They’re high in the healthy fatty acids your heart needs and in plenty other important minerals and fiber.
What’s a “seriously healthy meal” containing nuts?
Raw fruits or vegetables and raw nuts.
A really good way to have nuts is on a fresh vegetable plate, with cucumbers, red peppers, radishes, celery and other raw vegetables you enjoy.
Another way is to grind the nuts in a clean coffee grinder, and mix them into your fresh fruit salad.
Or have them on their own, while you slowly sip a large fresh vegetable juice or carrot juice.
Have healthy, raw, cancer-prevention meals like this, for breakfast, lunch or dinner at least once a day. It’s the new Fit for Life, a way to eat, if you don’t want cancer to soon strike everyone you know, including you.
Just do it! Go nuts and fight cancer.
