There, I’ve said it. I don’t donate to cancer charities. Every week I get a letter from a cancer charity, pleading for donations; or a note comes home from one of my kids’ schools asking for us to support a cancer fund-raising drive; or a cancer charity volunteer door-knocks me. But I don’t give money to any of these cancer charities.
You can send me hate mail if you like, but I have very good reasons for not supporting these organisations. And before you lambast for me for lacking sympathy for those who’ve endured the scourge of cancer, let me lay 2 facts on the table:
- One of my practice specialities is providing nutritional and emotional support to people undergoing medical treatment for cancer, and
- I am the mother of a childhood cancer survivor – my son was diagnosed with a paediatric brain cancer known as medulloblastoma when he was 6. It is highly likely his tumour was caused by radiation exposure I suffered during an unnecessary CT scan before I became pregnant with him, but that’s a story for another day.
Suffice it to say I know all about the physical and psychological suffering that cancer unleashes on patients and their families.
So why don’t I donate to cancer charities? Because they are focusing on the wrong thing: trying to find the “cure” rather than preventing cancer in the first place. I’ve written in other posts about the failure of Australian and overseas breast cancer charities to promote effective prevention strategies; the Prostate Cancer Foundation’s scientifically unsupportable advocacy of PSA screening, and failure to advise men of known dietary risk factors for prostate cancer; and the startling effects that compounds in many vegetables, fruits and legumes and also mushrooms, exert on cancer genes – none of which is promoted to the public by cancer charities.
As a result, millions of people all over the world will suffer from cancers that could have been prevented if they had been properly informed on how to minimise their risk.
The focus on drumming up money to find “cures” reminds me of the poem ‘The Ambulance Down in the Valley’, in which the inhabitants of a town overlooked by a dangerous cliff are persuaded to fund an ambulance down in the valley to pick up those who fall off the cliff, rather than the building of a fence to stop them falling off the cliff in the first place.
Now yet another connection between diet and cancer risk has emerged in scientific research… and you won’t hear about this one from cancer charities either.
Nearly 40 years ago, a fascinating anomaly in the metabolism of cancer cells was accidentally unearthed: they are dependent on large amounts of the essential amino acid methionine, which they use to produce sulphurous gases that fuel their growth (1). Non-cancerous cells can thrive without methionine, but many types of cancer cells – including melanoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, colon, breast, ovary, prostate, and acute lymphoblastic leukemia – stop replicating and die when starved of it (1, 2, 3).
This observation led several teams of researchers to experiment with low-methionine diets in prevention and treatment of cancer. Here are some of their conclusions:
“Several animal studies utilizing a methionine restricted diet have reported inhibition of cancer growth and extension of a healthy life-span.” (4)
“… methionine dependence may frequently occur in the cancer patient population.” (3)
“Numerous in vitro and animal studies demonstrate the effectiveness of dietary methionine restriction in inhibiting growth and eventually causing death of cancer cells. In contrast, normal host tissues are relatively resistant to methionine restriction. These preclinical observations led to a phase I clinical trial of dietary methionine restriction for adults with advanced cancer. Preliminary findings from this trial indicate that dietary methionine restriction is safe and feasible for the treatment of patients with advanced cancer. ” (5).
Great, so now you know you should be limiting your methionine intake if you have cancer, or want to prevent it and maximise your life-span. But how do you know which foods to limit or avoid? It’s quite simple really: methionine is found abundantly in animal protein, particularly chicken and fish, with dairy products, red meat and eggs also contributing substantially to the average person’s intake; while plant foods generally have much lower levels of methionine
Let’s see what the researchers have to say:
“In humans, vegan diets, which can be low in methionine, may prove to be a useful nutritional strategy in cancer growth control.” (4)
“Recent studies confirm that dietary methionine restriction increases both mean and maximal lifespan in rats and mice, achieving “aging retardant” effects very similar to those of caloric restriction, including a suppression of mitochondrial superoxide generation. Although voluntary caloric restriction is never likely to gain much popularity as a pro-longevity strategy for humans, it may be more feasible to achieve moderate methionine restriction, in light of the fact that vegan diets tend to be relatively low in this amino acid.
Plant proteins – especially those derived from legumes or nuts – tend to be lower in methionine than animal proteins… Whole-food vegan diets… can be quite low in methionine, while supplying abundant nutrition for health (assuming concurrent B12 supplementation).” (6)
For those who have already developed cancer, combining a methionine-restricted diet with certain chemotherapy drugs leads to better outcomes than chemotherapy alone (7, 8).
Given the large and growing body of research on methionine restricted-diets as a safe, effective prevention and treatment strategy for many types of cancers, it’s disappointing that none of the cancer charities promoting vegan or even vegetarian diets. The Cancer Council recommends eating red meat 3-4 times per week and eating chicken and fish on other nights, adding a weak suggestion to “try vegetarian alternatives” without giving any information on what these are or why they might be preferable.
The National Breast Cancer Foundation lists diet dead last when describing risk factors for breast cancer, and then merely suggests eating 5 serves of vegetables and 2 of fruit per day – advice that has been shown to be completely ineffective at cancer prevention, with much higher consumption of fruits and vegetables, and a focus on particular types of fresh produce, such as members of the allium (onion) and cruciferous (cabbage) families required for protection against cancer (9, 10, 11).
Drug companies – who are the main beneficiaries of the money donated by well-intentioned members of the public (either directly, or indirectly through the commercialisation of research initially funded by public donation and government money – aka the tax you pay) – are now scrambling to develop drugs that deplete cancer cells of methionine (2). These drugs, if they ever pass safety and efficacy testing and reach the bedsides of cancer patients, will reap huge profits for the drug companies who will hold patent rights on them – despite that fact those companies invest only a tiny fraction of their stupendous earnings on research that brings these drugs to market (see Marcia Angell’s excellent book, The Truth About the Drug Companies for details of this swindle; or watch Dr Angell here).
When a cancer charity finally arises that invests the money it receives from donations into research on prevention, and disseminating existing knowledge on prevention to the public, then I will donate my hard-earned money to it. Wait – there already is such a charity! The Nutritional Research Foundation is currently seeking funding for a study to evaluate the cancer risk reduction associated with a high nutrient density diet. As it’s a US-based organisation, Australians won’t be able to claim a tax deduction, but I consider that a small price to pay for getting quality research on cancer prevention done, published and disseminated to the public.
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