Health News: The Diabetes-Cancer Connection

The relationship between two of today’s most destructive diseases may now be a little clearer. This month, The New York Times reported on the detection of an important link between cancer and diabetes, a correlation so strong it is being compared to the link between smoking and cancer.

The news that Type 2 diabetes patients have an increased risk of developing certain cancers comes from the American Cancer Society and American Diabetes Association and researchers and the National Cancer Institute. One in five cancer patients has diabetes, according to the Times report.

The implication that lowering cancer statistics may hinge on lowering the number of people with diabetes is revealing, but it’s also difficult to hear. That’s because the number of Type 2 diabetes diagnoses today is staggering, and many more cases go undiagnosed. If current trends continue, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, by 2050, 1 in 3 people in the U.S. will have Type 2 diabetes – a diagnosis that is already linked with a long list of health complications, companion diseases, and death.

A Diet for Prevention

While the Times report reveals an intriguing link between these two devastating diseases, in fact, we have already observed a connection between cancer and diabetes from a nutrition perspective. In an interview with Wild About Health this past summer, Dan Nadeau, Medical Director of the Diabetes and Endocrinology Associates of Maine’s York Hospital, explained that diabetes is not a disease that exists in a vacuum. Having diabetes means you are at increased risk of Alzheimer’s, cancer, heart and vascular disease, inflammation, accelerated aging, and many other complications, he said.

Potent, antioxidant-rich, inflammation-fighting foods that provide protective effects to the body are central to the discussion of prevention, according to experts like Nadeau. Because much of one’s risk of Type 2 diabetes depends on being overweight, he advocates for a change in diet built on daily, ongoing healthy choices in an effort to “quiet the storm” of rampant inflammation inside the bodies of those diagnosed with diabetes and the many at risk.

According to Nutrition Advisor to the Wild Blueberry Association Susan Davis, MS, RD, “The typical western diet, high in refined carbohydrates, fats, sugars and calories actually contributes to inflammation while a diet higher in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and omega 3 fatty acids is anti-inflammatory. Vitamins, minerals, as well as plant compounds have both antioxidant as well as anti-inflammatory properties.” For example, wild blueberries, most known for their high antioxidant capacity, contain flavonoids such as anthocyanins, flavonols, and proanthocyanidins that have been shown to protect us from disease caused by low-grade, chronic inflammation such as cancer and diabetes (not to mention heart disease and arthritis). And when the inflammatory storm is quieted, our risk for disease subsides as well.

Protection on Our Plate

Coincidentally or not, a large portion of today’s research into berries and wild blueberries focuses on both cancer and diabetes prevention potential. We know, for example, that daily consumption of whole blueberries have helped people with a high risk for Type 2 diabetes reduce that risk by increasing the participants’ insulin sensitivity. And, a recent study from the Harvard School of Public Health showed that consumption of anthocyanin-rich fruits can reduce diabetes risk. We’ve also reported on the remarkable study conducted by Lynn Adams, Ph.D. and her team at Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope: they demonstrated the potential of blueberries to inhibit the growth of Triple Negative Breast Center (TNBC), a particularly aggressive and hard to treat form of breast cancer.  We have even covered research that supports that wild plants provide protection from cancer.

Davis has frequently shared with Wild About Health readers her view that we should view food as “treatment” for disease. Just as food can be used defensively as a preventative for disease and the effects of aging, it can be used as medicine to fight disease and counteract the damage done by free radicals that cause inflammation. Such advice is as timely as ever with Type 2 diabetes on the rise and its connection to certain cancers beginning to be established.

Making smart choices in the supermarket and at the breakfast, lunch, and dinner table means better health and lowered risk of challenging diseases like Type 2 diabetes. And when we make efforts toward prevention in important areas like diabetes, we are making efforts toward prevention in others as well.

You can find information about diabetes and diabetes prevention at Center for Disease Control & Prevention, the American Diabetes Association, and at the Mayo Clinic.

Read More About Nutrition, Diabetes & Cancer

Diabetes, Wild & “The Newsroom”

Pterostilbene: Big Promise for an Amazing Antioxidant

Dr. Oz’s “Cancer Detective” Makes a Case for Wild

Berry Good News: Blueberries May Cut Diabetes Risk

Anthocyanin Intake Decreases Type 2 Diabetes Risk

New Video! Exciting Study Ties Blueberries to Breast Cancer Prevention

There is no more exciting time in the world of blueberry research. The nutritional potential of blueberries, particularly wild blueberries, is high and building as we find out more and more about the natural disease preventing chemicals sheathed by that dark blue skin.

Now, a new study conducted by researchers at the City of Hope in Los Angeles provides an encouraging connection between the nutritional benefits of this powerhouse fruit to breast cancer prevention, isolating a specific link to a very aggressive form of the disease.

Watch Blueberries: A Triple Threat Against Triple-Negative Breast Cancers from the City of Hope and hear firsthand what the researchers have to say about this important study.

The study builds upon an infrastructure of previous research into the effect of phytochemicals, naturally occurring substances that are highly concentrated in blueberries and are present in other fruits and vegetables. Phytochemicals neutralize free radicals and help prevent cell damage, which prevents diseases of aging and types of cancer.

This promising study reports on the effect of blueberries on a type of breast cancer referred to as triple-negative. Triple-negative breast cancer is difficult to treat and has a high mortality rate compared to other types of breast cancers.

The study was conducted by researchers Shiuan Chen, Ph.D., and Lynn Adams, Ph.D and will be published in the October 2011 issue of The Journal Of Nutrition. In terms of the connection between triple-negative breast cancer and the effect of blueberries, the report includes the following outcomes:

  • inhibited proliferation of triple negative cells
  • increased death rate of bad cells
  • inhibited metastatic potential, or migration of cells
  • inhibited tumor growth

The details of the results of the study can be found at The Lempert Report.

We know that blueberries contain phytochemicals, and according to co-researcher Dr. Shiuan Chen, we already have the evidence that blueberries can help to suppress the proliferation and migration of cancer cells. Still outstanding is actually defining what the active chemicals are that act on these cancer cells. But the results of this initial study remain very exciting. Because the study was conducted with blueberry powder fed to mice, it must, of course, be replicated in humans, but one encouraging factor was the achievable amount of blueberry intake involved. It is common to hear of studies involving amounts of food that would be impossible to consume. Here, the dose required to achieve results was equivalent to two cups of fresh blueberries per day, something reasonable for consumption by humans.

Breast cancer affects 1 in 8 women during their lives. Anticipating more definitive research into this important cancer, particularly into this very aggressive form, is very exciting. There are few effective drugs for triple-negative breast cancer, and lowering mortality rates would have an enormous impact on the population with the disease and for those who are at risk. But there’s no need to wait to start a disease-fighting regimen: there is overwhelming agreement in the scientific community that efforts to lower the risk of breast cancer involve eating blueberries and a variety of fruits and vegetables, according to co-researcher Dr. Lynn Adams. To get variety in your diet, use the rainbow as your guide. The different colors of fruits and vegetables provide diverse forms of phytochemicals, which appear to act in synergy with one another to prevent disease. Blueberries, specifically wild blueberries, which have a higher ORAC score than cultivated blueberries, are the best way to integrate the blue-purple color of the spectrum.

The fact that foods which could provide anti-cancer benefits are readily available is a valuable message for consumers. We are lucky that this convenient, delicious fruit is available frozen in grocery stores all year, providing all the nutrition of fresh. Start getting your two cups per day. You’ll be doing something good for your body and making strides toward disease prevention.

A lot is happening in the world of nutrition research! Find out more about the exciting new research into the health advantages of wild blueberries, and read the latest news about how blueberries can reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome.

Veggie Love: Maine Author Makes Color Delicious

If a whole new way of life based on tasty veggies and fruits, bright colors, and prevention and recovery from disease sounds like something you’d like to embrace in the new year, getting to know Meg Wolff is a perfect start.

Wolff is a local author who will be appearing at Portland, Maine’s Longfellow Books on Thursday, January 20th, discussing her latest book, A Life In Balance: Delicious, Plant-Based Recipes for Optimal Health. She is a cancer survivor and devotes her time to promoting healthy foods and recipes that contribute to wellness and disease prevention. A blogplanted the seed for A Life in Balance, a vegetarian cookbook which includes a wealth of recipes from the author and other well-known authors and chefs that present macrobiotic and vegan cooking in delicious and accessible ways.

Plants That Change Your Life

Wolff’s recipes range from black bean and cornbread casserole to pasta dishes, but plants are at the heart of this Maine resident’s guidelines for eating toward health and healing. She feels strongly that a diet based on whole plant foods – that means eating primarily whole grains, beans & vegetables, no processed foods & sugar – is the path to healthy living, and credits her largely macrobiotic lifestyle to better health following two grave cancer diagnoses. Part of her message is that diet can dramatically increase your quality of life, especially for those with a life-threatening disease, and plants, rich as they are in healing compounds that fight cancer, are the conduit.

They also make for delicious, colorful dishes that are hard even for confirmed carnivores to resist. Of course, we love Wolff’s passion for wild blueberries; blues grace the cover of her new book, and she is an advocate of using them in delicious ways, including in fruit salads, cakes, and vinaigrettes. You can read about her anticancer breakfast at the Huffington Post. It features a breakfast staple – oatmeal – and it’s no surprise she suggests topping it with Maine wild blueberries (or sunflower seeds for protein).

Get a Taste of the Plant-Based Life

If you have a casual interest in going plant-based, you can start with Wolff’s blog – its spectrum of foods and science-based information about health will reel you in. You can also get your plant-based diet fix from her website if you’re interested in dipping your toe in the plant-based life: start with Squash & Carrot Ginger Soup, Gingered Chickpeas, and some painless principles for making polenta and sautéed veggies. All are so delicious and robust with hue, you’ll consider your new year’s resolution for a rainbow-colored plate all but achieved.

Meet Meg Wolff at Longfellow Books in Portland on January 20th.

Fall Colors Offer a Phytochemical Feast

Fall food, fall foliage—autumn provides a bounty of dazzling color! The season is a vibrant reminder that the best way to eat healthy and stay well is to take advantage of the edible rainbow of color that occurs naturally. Consider the bright crimson apple, the fluorescent orange squash…these flamboyant fruits and veggies are making their best case in the fall months.

It’s the doctrine of The Color Code: color is your medicine all seasons of the year. Eating deep, colorful foods in the widest spectrum is simply the best thing to do for your health. When we eat colorful foods, we’re getting the benefit of phytochemicals, and phytochemicals protect us from disease.

According to botanist Dr. James Duke, author of The Green Pharmacy, we need phytochemicals in our diet because the human body evolved with them. In many cases, says Duke, cancer and heart disease are simply a deficiency of antioxidants. “Scientists are starting to think of these diseases as a shortage of phytochemicals,” he says.

So, if it’s loaded with color, it’s loaded with disease prevention. And right now, it’s all there for the taking, so load up.  

Bewildered by Blues? Perplexed by Purples? Don’t Be.

Eating across the color spectrum can seem easy in some hues and less easy in others. Deep greens, for instance, can appear readily available, while blues and purples sometimes stump us.

But don’t be color blind to the uncommon benefits and surprising accessibility of these colors—deep purples and blues represent some of the healthiest foods under the sun. In fact, fall is the perfect time for munching away at this particular end of the spectrum. Think red cabbage and red onion for those saturated red-purple hues. Lusciously dark eggplant is a fall staple and a great representative of the purple family. And wild blueberries, the number one superfruit, is a cobalt delight—get them frozen any time of year.

Fall is awash in color! Take your penchant for leaf peeping to the produce aisle and fill your bag to the brim with all the colors of the spectrum!

For additional inspiration, see WebMD’s video about Fall Food Colors.

Metabolic Disorders: Coming to a Store Near You?

A quick visit to Metabolictyping.com will shine a light on a new wave in eating. “The ‘diet debate’ is over,” it asserts, and “The ‘diet wars’ have ended.” Now, it states, the only diet that we should be on is the one that fits our metabolic type.

Has the marketing of metabolic syndrome  and metabolic disorders begun?

In previous posts, we’ve talked about the clusters of factors responsible for a diagnosis of metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome refers to a group of risk factors including high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol levels and belly fat that increases risk of heart disease and diabetes. Dangerously high increases in the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome have been attributed to our nation’s growing abdomens and climbing blood pressure, and its increase is expected to parallel a health-threatening rise in type 2 diabetes.

According to consumer trends organization The Lempert Report, metabolic syndrome is poised to be the health fad of the coming year. Quite a distinction! But its fad status could help usher in new thinking about diet and health, in part because it could dictate the brands we see on shelves and the information disseminated by the stores themselves. The publicity that surrounds the syndrome and its satellite diseases seems to have caught the interest of food advertisers who are urging the shift away from old-school “diet”, “low fat” and “low carb” thinking to a modern-day healthy eating craze that incorporates broader solutions: solutions that focus on improving overall health.

Your Grocery Store, Your Health

You may not consider your grocery store as a your primary source for health information. But perhaps it should be. Consumers are demanding more from their local groceries, including better, less expensive options for healthy food and more robust health and nutrition information and guidance.

Catalina Marketing, which conducts research about shopper-driven marketing, recently conducted a consumer study that presents some information about our buying habits and behavior when it comes to food purchasing at the grocery store. The results show that the minority of shoppers – only 36% – believe the supermarket helps them manage or reduce their risk of specific health concerns; just 38% felt their stores provided foods and beverages that helped them do it themselves. Still fewer – 25% –  felt that employees were knowledgeable about nutrition. The study also indicated that shoppers wanted fresh, healthy meals – they want healthier options, less expensive foods and more help in planning healthy meals. They are looking toward their grocery for help, and they are finding it lacking.

In fact, supermarkets held their place as the most frequented channel for 56% of shoppers, unchanged from 2009, according to a 2010 Food Marketing Institute Trends report. It’s the first time in five years that  supermarket share has not declined. FMI President and CEO, Leslie G. Sarasin, said the study indicates that shoppers believe the food they eat at home is healthier than the food they eat out.  “It is clear supermarkets are positioned to help their customers save money and help them make healthier choices when it comes to food,” she said.

With grocery stores in an influencing position when it comes to what we eat, should they be responsible for merely stocking the shelves, or should they take a leading role in our health in an effort to fill some of these health holes that we encounter everyday?  

Is Your Corner Grocery in Your Corner?

Because the grocery stores in our neighborhoods (provided we have an accessible grocery store in our neighborhood) is where we get our food, their role in our eating habits can’t be underestimated. Grocery stores stock the foods that stem from the latest health preoccupations. This new thinking about health and diet presents a new opportunity in advertising that focuses on metabolic syndrome and overall health rather than singular issues.

Some stores have stepped up to take a more prominent role in public health. Some have worked specifically to combat food deserts – those areas where underserved populations have little or no access to fresh, healthy foods. Consider New York’s Green Cart program, the FRESH (Food Retail Expansion to Support Health) program, or Los Angeles’ Alliance for Healthy and Responsible Grocery Stores, all programs working to bring fresh food and produce to those living in food deserts. This past week, Shop N Save announced the launch of a comprehensive, whole-store health and wellness program called “living healthy with my diabetes.” Just in time for a month focusing on diabetes awareness, the program offers education and screening opportunities, and nutrition information focused on tamping down growing diabetes numbers.

Proactive actions on the part of groceries should continue, urges The Lemport Report. In addition to “packaging the metabolic health story” they urge supermarkets to offer classes on metabolic health, offer workshops with professionals in the area of nutrition, and even provide “aisle-by-aisle metabolic nutrition store tours.”

These efforts could turn your local grocery into a virtual health center where metabolic syndrome and related diseases are in the spotlight.

 
 Postscript: What is Metabolic Typing?

Determining what one’s individual metabolism requires and creating individualized diet guidelines – called metabolic typing – has actually been around for years. It has been promoted to address the health needs of individuals at a fundamental metabolic level. Such diet prescriptions catering to type are purported to balance the many aspects of metabolism, allowing for increased energy, weight loss and disease resistance. It has even been used as an alternative medicine for those diagnosed with cancer. Now, with today’s concerns surrounding metabolic disorders, metabolic typing may be shifting to the mainstream.

Metabolic typing is based on the idea that the same diet can have a drastically different effect on different people. It’s something you many have observed yourself in your own diet: eating certain foods can make your co-worker feel energized while it makes you feel lethargic. Creating a diet of specific foods and food combinations that work best for your type can have a positive effect on metabolism, and that can result in a better health and well-being.

Three metabolic types, originally identified by William Wolcott in his book “The Metabolic Typing Diet” breaks down into three groups. Protein types tends to have strong appetites. They think about food often and crave fatty, salty foods. Eating sugary foods can exacerbate their cravings, and getting food satisfaction is a constant challenge. The Carb type is a generally characterized by having a lighter appetite, and a penchant for salads and veggies. They tend to tolerate skipped meals or fasting well. Mixed Types, not surprisingly, have characteristics of both.

Determining our type can determine recommended foods and food combinations that could serve our health. For example, Protein types would eat higher amounts of protein and lower amounts of carbs, and higher amounts of fat, whereas Carb types would eat more carbs and less fat and slightly less protein for optimum health.

While typing may be back on the radar, generally speaking, dietary guidelines for preventing metabolic disorders and treating those who have metabolic syndrome include combining exercise and weight control with a diet that incorporates moderate levels of carbohydrates, and , usually, increased amounts complex carbs, fiber and healthy fats, type notwithstanding. (You can find out more about the details of Metabolic types and their impact on health at Metabolictyping.com.)

Find out more about Metabolic Syndrome research. Metabolic syndrome may be the syndrome of the year, and prevention is of great interest to researchers and scientists. Research continues into the effect of phytochemicals, specifically those found in blueberries, on metabolic syndrome. You can read more about the work of Mary Ann Lila and the Plant Institute and the importance of the nutritional elements of blueberries on today’s captivating diet phenomenon.

Plate of Prevention: Should Your Food Be Treating You?

Scientists and researchers around the world are engaged in finding cures for disease. They are isolating components in food that could help prevent cancers and diseases of aging, they are engaged in clinic trials of pharmaceuticals, and they are studying the mechanisms of the body to discover how and why diseases occur to make strides toward prevention.

While this worthwhile research persists, the irony is that every day we can be part of treatment and prevention of disease. After all, we eat at least three times a day. Why wouldn’t we be using that opportunity to do what thousands of researchers are in their labs trying to do?

Since the late eighties we’ve heard the term “functional food” – food with health-promoting or disease-preventing property. More recently were introduced to the concept of superfoods – foods like blueberries with a particularly high concentration of phytonutrients. But we often think of those foods as isolated and special, categorized as such for their unique nutritional power.

Instead, perhaps we should be viewing all our food as poised to improve or deteriorate our health. Do you see your meals as disease preventing measures, or simply sustenance and enjoyment?

How We View Food

A recent report from the Hartman Group, a research and marketing firm that focuses on health and wellness, sheds a little light on our views about wellness, including how we view food when it comes to treatment and prevention. According to the report, consumers are more apt to see foods as useful in preventing health issues rather than treating problems. The report includes the following data:

  • 56% use foods to prevent high cholesterol; 30% to treat it.
  • 46% use food to prevent cancer; 10% to treat it.
  • 41% use food to prevent high blood pressure; 15% to treat it.
  • 27% use food to treat osteoporosis; 10% to treat it.

Interestingly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, when it comes to being overweight or obese, it’s the exception to the rule of prevention-not-treatment. Nearly equal numbers of respondents said they’re using foods to prevent excessive weight or treat it.

Food as Treatment

There are plenty of authors and nutritionists that advocate the use of food (whole foods that are readily available, not herbs and tinctures) as treatment for disease and ailments by urging us to choose the right foods or food combinations. From white turnip fasts for fibroids to cabbage for depression, advocates say we can prevent addiction, allergies, even ADD, in addition to cancers and heart disease.

There are undisputed ways of treating disease with food as well. Celiac disease is treated by adopting a gluten-free lifestyle, for example. Diabetes has long been known to be a nutritional disease despite non-food treatments. A recent follow-up study by researchers at Harvard School of Public Health
indicates that people with metabolic syndrome may be able to reverse symptoms (in as sense, treat them) through diet. The potential of reversing cognitive ability and other diseases of aging are currently being researched as well and hold fascinating potential for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, age-related memory loss, even neurodengenerative diseases like Parkinson’s.

We also tend to see aging as a disease to be treated. According to the Hartman group study, older people are most likely to be concerned with “treating” aging, while younger people use foods more for energy or stress reduction without concern about anti-aging. While the two are likely to intersect, it may be one example of having the disease before we treat it rather than relying on prevention.

But beyond these food treatments, a shift in views about all foods that go into our mouths is brewing. Talk to nutritionist and laypersons alike, and you’ll likely find them say that they are seeing their food differently – as something that will be incorporated into their body to promote general health and well-being as opposed to seeing it as something tasty, filling, indulgent or fast. They look at their plate and they see medicine.

Food as Prevention

Termed “defensive eating” by the American Dietetic Association, eating for prevention means harnessing the power of vitamins and minerals in food and extracting an aggressively protective, or “anti” effect. For example, because wild blueberries contain nearly 100 phytochemicals, and phytochemicals they are agents of protection: they are antibacterial, antiinflammtory and anitoxdant among a host of other “antis”. Getting “anti” on your diet means you are eating for prevention.

While using food to prevent disease is more common than using food as treatment, sometimes treatment can just be prevention that’s happening too late. Consider those who have experienced cardiovascular events and subsequent operations who use diet as compulsory treatment when prevention could have lessened the chances of having the event in the first place.

But evidence suggests food-as-medicine is intensifying, and not at the grass roots – it may be happening from the top down. Recently, doctors have actually begun prescribing healthy foods to patients. As part of an initiative taking place at three Massachusetts health centers, doctors have been giving out free passes to farmer’s markets to those who need them. It should come as no surprise: for years some doctors have advocated going to the fruit and vegetable aisle in order to avoid going to the medicine cabinet. Here is The Color Code author Jim Joseph on prevention:

“By changing what you eat, you can reduce your blood pressure, lower your blood sugar, and diminish the risks of cancer, heart disease and macular degeneration. You can do all these things without pricey pharmaceuticals, just be adopting a more healthy, semi-vegetarian diet—one loaded with dark leafy greens, deep organ vegetables and vibrant red and blue fruits. […] As a Greek adage says, ‘It is the function of medicine to help people die young as late a possible.’  Food is precisely the medicine that let’s you do that. Colorful food that is.”


What’s Your Treatment Plan?

Do you view your food as treatment, prevention or something else entirely? Today, if you’re not viewing what’s on your plate as your three-times-daily “dose” rather than just a palliative for hunger, give it a try. Try seeing everything that goes into your mouth as part of your Rx. It might give you a very different view of how you are “treating” your body and your health.

Want more information? The USDA has information about diet and disease.