Cancer and food

A dietary approach to cancer treatment and prevention

"it appears that the high-protein, high-fat, low-fiber diet typically consumed in America today will result in high concentrations of ammonia in the human colon." {ref}

Diet can affect the rate of cancer growth {study}. The best anti-cancer diet is a diet designed to slow cancer growth and to work in synergy with anticancer medication during active and long-term treatment {book}. Some things to consider:

• Insulin: Reducing insulin levels could be beneficial. High levels of the enzyme PI3K are correlated with the malignant transformation of cells, and PI3K is easily activated by insulin. ⇒ How to reduce elevated insulin levels
• Dietary precautions 🔶 After chemotherapy
• 10 Dietary Strategies to put the brakes on cancer growth

10 Dietary Strategies to Put the Brakes on Cancer growth: various foods and strategies that can inhibit cancer growth and promote healing.

1. Reduce ammonia 🛈: certain foods are naturally lower in ammonia-producing compounds than others. Try eating more fruits e.g. watermelon, tangerine, grapefruit, berries, apples, and vegetables e.g. cauliflower, kale, and onions. Add some probiotic-rich foods ( greek yogurt). Avoid alcohol and stay hydrated (tea, filtered or mineral water).
2. Sugar: replace processed and artificial sugars with fruit. Consume fruits with strong anti-cancer properties (apple, grapefruit, guava fruit, melon, papaya, pineapple, etc.)
3. Glycolysis inhibition: Turmeric, Graviola, Cardamom Spice, Ginger, Fisetin, Myricetin, Silibinin, Quercetin, Resveratrol, Apigenin, Citric acid, Cinnamic acid, Sulforaphane
4. Reduce lactic acid: magnesium {study}→ magnesium supplements (best taken with food in evening), Top 10 List of High Magnesium Foods, kelp, nettles(extract, tea), lemon juice, PQQ, citric acid🛈{ref}, Green tea (extract) {study}, Saffron{study}, Gelum drops {link}, Vitamin B1, Methylene Blue🟪 + lipoic acid {ref}.
5. Inhibit glutamine uptake: berberine, green tea (egcg), ashwagandha
6. Increase NK cells, restrictors of metastasis: reduced lactate levels improve NK cell activity (see #4| study), artemisinin🛈, enzymatically modified rice bran, blueberries {study}, Brolico {link|study}, melatonin(as a supplement, also in foods like pistachios, lentils) Panax ginseng (+ GABA {ref}), cardamom & black pepper (work synergistically) Turkey Tail, Triphala, Active Hexose Correlated Compound, zinc(1 hour before breakfast or before lunch), avemar®, modified citrus pectin{study}, IP6, MYO X (inhibition of activin-A by follistatin{study}), 1 gr. Vitamin C (=5 grams acerola), Vitamin B3, Ashwaghanda
7. Enzyme-rich foods and adding an oral enzyme preparation 🛈 (in between meals) to your diet plan might be very helpful in eliminating cancer cells.{study} 
8. Foods that kill cancer stem cells (CSC):  Delphinidin(Berries), 6-Gingerol(Ginger), Epigallocatechin-3-gallate(Green Tea), Curcumin(Turmeric), Linalool (Basil, Grapes), Lycopene(Tomato), Falcarinol (Carrot), Baicalein(Chinese Skullcap), Isothiocyanates(Cruciferous vegetables),  Parthenolide(Feverfew), Perylill alcohol( Mint, Cherry, Lavender), Ursolic acid(Cranberry, Thyme, Basil, Oregano), Withaferin A (Ashwagandha), Silibinin(Milk Thistle), Quercetin(Capers, Onion), Vitamin D3(Fish, Egg yolk, cod liver oil), Piperine(Black pepper), Guggulsterone (Myrrh Gum), Flavanoids
9. Consume more foods that have low levels of lysine and serine

    10. Low-fat diet {study} "A calorie-balanced, low-fat diet (high carb diet) inhibited tumor growth by 3-fold compared with that in mice fed a control/normal diet. A 5-fold difference in tumor growth between mice fed low-fat and high-fat diets suggests that fat-induced obesity promotes cancer growth, and tumor growth depends on fatty acids as the primary source of energy." 

Healing The Gut

The gut wall contains 70 to 80 percent of the cells that make up our immune system. Therefore, healing the gut is crucial in order to regain your health. {review/study/review}

• Gluten, histamines, oxalates, and lectins can cause damage to the gut wall. Frying and grilling increases histamine levels in foods. Cooking in water reduces lectins and oxalates. 
• Cancer patients often receive antibiotics and a recent study shows too many antibiotics harm cancer survival chances: "the greater the number and diversity of bacteria in the gut, the more T cells there are available to take on cancers, but a course of antibiotics can suppress bacteria levels for weeks." Probiotics can reverse gut damage caused by antibiotics. Taking Vitamin C during a course of antibiotics could also be beneficial. Occasional consumption of naturally fermented foods like sauerkraut (fermented using salt, not in vinegar), kefir, miso, or plain yogurt may help restore beneficial intestinal flora. Niacin supplementation restores the number of Treg cells depleted by antibiotic treatment{ref}. 
• Parasites may serve as promoters of cancer. For an effective parasite cleansing consider using a herbal supplement.
• Gut microbiota can influence HDAC🛈 activity via microbial-derived metabolites. {Ref} Butyrate🛈 .
• Zinc helps maintain the integrity of the intestinal lining.

Healing The Liver

In addition to a healthy diet here are a few things you can do to promote liver health:

• avoid alcohol: it produces injury to the liver and elevates lactic acid in the blood. {study}
• avoiding processed sugars
• Calcium-d-glucarate 
• Bacopa Monnieri
• Liquid chlorophyll
• Milk thistle.

Reducing & Resolving Inflammation

1. Breathing exercises, morning and afternoon.

2. Vitamin C (1000 mg/day e.g. 5grams of acerola) 🛈 

3. Bovine gelatin, bone broth

4. Curcumin, DHA, Boswellia, Sulforaphane. CURC + SULF synergy {ref}

5. Butyrate🛈 + Ellagic acid {study}

6. Intermittent use of aluminum-free baking soda 🛈

7. Check Synergies + Strategies Master File

8. See FAQ

Balancing Hormones

• Lowering inflammation is essential to the balancing of hormones.
• Nigella sativa
• Ashwagandha
• Rhodiola
• Ginger

Detox

Mineral water, cilantro, chlorella, acerola, activated carbon with plenty of clean water, and modified citrus pectin🛈.

Soup

Heartwarming delicious soup recipes packed with cancer-fighting nutrients :

• Dr. Gerson Soup: You can find the recipe here
• Fish broth: homemade fish broth

Beverages

Water. Herb and fruit-infused water. Green tea with lemon, organic coffee with cinnamon. Adequate hydration helps the kidneys excrete urea and other nitrogenous wastes efficiently, preventing the buildup of toxic byproducts like ammonia.

Blog post: High Dietary Inorganic Phosphate and Lung Tumorigenesis

Supplements should only be taken under the supervision of a healthcare provider. Supplements or herbal preparations should never be combined with chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, or any other cancer treatment unless the safety and efficacy of such combinations are established. It's essential to make sure anything you add to the standard treatment will further improve the efficacy of that treatment, hence the importance of discussing any addition of supplements or dietary interventions during active cancer treatment with the oncologist.

References & Sources

• The Circle of Lactate: How cancer cells can reuse their own waste
• The origin of the acidosis in hyperlactataemia
• Therapeutic blockade of activin-A improves NK cell function and antitumor immunity
• Lactate: Metabolic Hallmark of Cancer in the 21st Century
• An inflammatory diet correlates with colorectal cancer risk
• Cancer Immunotherapy Based on Natural Killer Cells: Current Progress and New Opportunities
• Map for ‘Drug and Food’ in Cancer Nutrition: Specific Nutrition Pathways During Chemotherapy for Patients with Cancer
• A novel therapeutic anticancer property of raw garlic extract via injection but not ingestion
• The influence of diet on anti-cancer immune responsiveness
• High-fructose corn syrup boosts intestinal tumor growth in mice
• Reactivation of mutant p53 by a dietary-related compound phenethyl isothiocyanate inhibits tumor growth
• Reduced cancer risk in vegetarians: an analysis of recent reports
• Diet and risk of cancer
• Diet and cancer
• Animal products and cancer 
• The body cleansing diet
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23829116
• https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131(16)30643-X
• Red onions could beat cancer by destroying tumor cells
• https://www.fxmedicine.com.au/blog-post/surprising-benefits-phosphatidyl-choline
• http://www.cynosura.org/~agrobiol/cynos/download/selenium_trial.pdf
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27281365
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4387950/
• Nutrition and cancer: A review of the evidence for an anti-cancer diet
• Modulation of dendritic cell immune functions by plant components
• Lactose intolerance and risk of lung, breast and ovarian cancers: aetiological clues from a population-based study in Sweden.
• Should Cancer Patients Avoid All Sugar?
• Cumulative antibiotic use and efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in patients with advanced cancer
• Anti-cancer agents counteracting tumor glycolysis
• https://www.eattobeat.org/
• Why the Dr. Budwig Flaxseed Diet should be Part of your Cancer Treatment Program
• The Adaptive Complexity of Cancer "cancer therapies should assist the antitumoricidal immune response by targeting immunosuppression, inflammation, and the tumor nutritional lifeline (i.e., glucose, glutamine, and lactate) extended by the TME. Ultimately, cancer therapies should aim at restoring immunosurveillance and preventing the dynamics of interactions between the tumor and the immune system from slipping into the immunoediting and escape stages"
• Energy disruptors: rising stars in anticancer therapy?
• Diet in Altering Disease Progression in Patients With Prostate Cancer on Active Surveillance "diet high in vegetables especially more carotenoids (carrot) and lycopene (tomato) on a daily basis"
• Being overweight before age 40 increases the cancer risk
• Comparative effects of two different forms of selenium on oxidative stress biomarkers in healthy men: a randomized clinical trial
• The Role of PI3K in Met Driven Cancer: A Recap
• Excerpt from USDA PRAL List
• https://www.precisionnutrition.com/all-about-phytates-phytic-acid
• https://blog.designsforhealth.com/node/1209
• https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Common-foods-that-contain-5-ALA-FOOD-5-ALA-content_tbl1_276036972
• Grapes: Finding the cure in food: Medical research involving University of Louisville scientists was recently published in a major industry journal. 
• Personalized nutrition for cancer
• New insight into pathogenesis of medical diseases
• Niacin fine-tunes energy homeostasis through canonical GPR109A signaling
• New insight into pathogenesis of medical diseases
• Resveratrol and genistein can inhibit progesterone secretion
• The Role of the Na+/K+ Pump in Normal and Cancer Cell Proliferation
• Increased Serine Synthesis Provides an Advantage for Tumors Arising in Tissues Where Serine Levels Are Limiting
• Foods highest in Serine
• Foods lowest in Serine
• Dietary restriction of amino acids for Cancer therapy
• Low lysine foods
• Fecal and soil microbiota composition of gardening and non-gardening families
• Treatment implications of natural compounds targeting lipid metabolism in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, obesity and cancer
• PUFA's: The Worst Thing For Your Health That You Eat Everyday
• Fruit and vegetable intake and the risk of cardiovascular disease, total cancer and all-cause mortality—a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of prospective studies
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4801417/
• Tomatoes, Tomato-Based Products, Lycopene, and Cancer: Review of the Epidemiologic Literature
• Effect of different levels of dietary methionine restriction on relieving oxidative stress and behavioral deficits in middle-aged mice fed low-, medium-, or high-fat diet
• https://www.mastzellaktivierung.info/downloads/foodlist/21_FoodList_EN_alphabetic_withCateg.pdf
• Supplemented very low protein diet ameliorates responsiveness to erythropoietin in chronic renal failure
• Inhibition of cancer cell proliferation and suppression of TNF-induced activation of NFkappaB by edible berry juice
• https://www.huffpost.com/entry/multiple-sclerosis-diet_b_2258056
• https://www.nutriavenue.com/l-ornithine-l-aspartate-the-liver-loving-compound/
• Amino acids in cancer
• Thyroid: Therapies, Confusion, and Fraud
• Pathophysiological Roles of Histamine Receptors in Cancer Progression: Implications and Perspectives as Potential Molecular Targetssubstantial evidence from in vitro and in vivo studies, as well as from several human trials, indicates a strong relationship between cancer regression and various HR ligands, including H1R antagonists, H2R antagonists, and H4R agonists. Therefore, these HR subtypes are promising molecular targets for cancer treatment, and HR ligands may improve therapeutic efficacy, offering novel therapeutic application alone or in combination with conventional therapy.
• 6 Common Foods That Inhibit Iron Absorption
• 45% of people carry a genetic mutation that significantly reduces their ability to convert provitamin A into vitamin A {ref}
• Nutrition - minerals
• The effects of twenty-four nutrients and phytonutrients on immune system function and inflammation: A narrative review {ref}
• Amino Acids
• Dietary vitamin B6 suppresses colon tumorigenesis by reducing cell proliferation, oxidative stress, NO production and angiogenesis.
• Caffeine decreases ammonemia in athletes using a ketogenic diet during prolonged exercise {ref}
• https://www.myfooddata.com/
• Lower-phosphorus alternatives to choose from:
• Fresh fruits and vegetables
• Rice milk, unenriched
• Breads
• Pasta
• Rice
• Fish
• Corn and rice cereals
• Soda without phosphate additives
• Home-brewed ice tea
• Top 10 Foods Highest in Phenylalanine
• Phenylacetic acid is found predominantly in fruits e.g guava, papaya, raspberry, strawberry, tomato, passion fruit, starfruit, mango, and also mushroom, cocoa, and pepper.
• Efficacy of Low-Carbohydrate Ketogenic Diet as an Adjuvant Cancer Therapy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials {ref}
• Role of Bioflavonoid Quercetin on Expression of Urea Cycle Enzymes, Astrocytic and Inflammatory Markers in Hyperammonemic Rats {ref}
• Long-Term Ketogenic Diet Induces Metabolic Acidosis, Anemia, and Oxidative Stress in Healthy Wistar Rats {ref}
• Effect of a low-carbohydrate diet on plasma and sweat ammonia concentrations during prolonged non exhausting exercise {ref} "The higher ammonia concentrations in plasma and sweat after the low-carbohydrate diet would seem to indicate an increased ammonia production, which may be related to reduced initial carbohydrate stores."
• Lots Of Low-fat Food Is Better Than Small Portions Of High-fat Food
• Competing paradigms of obesity pathogenesis: energy balance versus carbohydrate-insulin models
• Primary care-led weight management for remission of type 2 diabetes (DiRECT): an open-label, cluster-randomised trial
• The stress hormone norepinephrine increases migration of prostate cancer cells in vitro and in vivo {ref}
• Histidine Metabolism and Function {ref}
• 2 sides of creatine in cancer
• Glycemia, starch, and sugar in context {ref}
• Coumaric acid: olives, jujube fruit {ref | ref}, brown rice {ref}, tomatoes, coffee, blueberries, blackberries, eggplant, bamboo shoots, broccoli {ref | ref} cranberry, radish, pepper, cauliflower, white cabbage, onion, zucchini, cucumber {ref} rosemary extract {ref} oregano, thyme, sage, parsley {ref} carrot {ref} trace amounts in most fruits, plants and mushrooms.
• Histidine is selectively required for the growth of Myc-dependent dedifferentiation tumours in the Drosophila CNS {ref}
• Association between niacin and mortality among patients with cancer in the NHANES retrospective cohort {ref} "According to our study, higher dietary niacin intake was associated with lower mortality in cancer patients. Niacin supplements improved cancer survival rates, but not all causes of mortality."
• Dr. Sebi Nutritional Guide - Mucus Reducing Alkaline Diet (naturallifeenergy.com)
• Arginine Signaling and Cancer Metabolism {ref}
• 14 Healthy High Fiber, Low Carb Foods
• Proportions of amino acids in selected foods across food groups
• Benzoic acid {ref}

Updated June 23, 2024