An Ounce of Cancer Prevention
By Vic Shayne, PhD

Can cancer be prevented, or is it an inevitable fact of life? The good news is that cancer isn’t “natural.” Cancer rates are a byproduct of industrialized societies that have allowed poisonous chemicals and poor quality food to permeate our lives. We may be the MOST fed nation on earth, but we are certainly not the BEST fed.

Ben Franklin’s mistresses used to quote him as saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Quite simply, this means it’s better to think about the condition of your health BEFORE you get sick. Yet, it’s gotten to the point where most of us have a close friend or relative who has, or has had, cancer. World wide, more than seven million people die from cancer every year, and the numbers increase annually.

Preventing illness (including cancer) is primarily a three-part practice consisting of:

• 1. Avoiding foods that are bad for you
• 2. Eating the foods that are good for you, and
• 3. Making lifestyle improvements

Over the past fifty years or so, the diet of modern cultures has gone sour. Most foods in our grocery stores, restaurants and dinner tables actually contribute to cancer because they are filled with unnatural, toxic and disease-promoting ingredients such as:

• artificial ingredients (dyes, coloring, flavoring, synthetic vitamins, MSG, emulsifiers, etc.)
• sugars of all kinds — sucrose, glucose, fructose, corn syrup, dextrose, etc.
• bad oils (hydrogenated, partially hydrogenated, margarine, etc.)

Add to this the fact that our environment (our air, land and water) is a dumping ground for toxic chemicals ranging from fluoride to plastic gases and vehicle exhaust, and you can see why we have a cancer epidemic. “Most epidemiologists and cancer researchers would agree that the relative contribution from the environment toward cancer risk is about 80-90 percent,” said Aaron Blair, Ph.D., chief of the Occupational Epidemiology Branch in NCI’s Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics.

The American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) recommends that people eat more plant-based foods and states that as much as 20 percent of lung cancer, 33 percent of breast cancer, and 66 percent of colon cancer could be prevented by appropriate diet choices, regular exercise, and maintaining a healthy body weight. Add this to not smoking and moderate consumption of alcohol and the AICRF believes that 60 percent to 70 percent of all cancers are preventable!

Best Foods to Eat
There are a number of ways that foods can prevent cancer, yet most significant is by means of biochemical transformation. Simply, certain foods such as those in the cruciferous family (kale, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels’ sprouts, etc.) contain sulfur compounds that are known to convert fat-soluble toxins into water-soluble complexes which can then be eliminated from the body via the kidneys.

Some foods and herbs bolster the immune system, enabling toxins to be flushed from the body. And still other foods and herbs such as cilantro can get rid of heavy, toxic metals such as mercury. Other detoxifying foods and herbs include red clover blossoms, burdock root, licorice, Oregon grape root, cat’s claw and kelp.

An organically grown diet is ideal, because all other foods contain, to varying degrees, pesticide, herbicide and synthetic fertilizer residues known to negatively impact glands, nerves, organs and all other tissues. In fact, the only ones telling us that organic foods are not necessarily a healthier choice are chemical and processed foods industries that are a major part of the problem.

VITAMIN B17
Does vitamin B17/Laetrile work? Does it cure or prevent cancer? This is difficult to say given the small amount of research on the subject. Proponents of vitamin B17 therapy claim that the nutrients from foods that contain nitrilosides, which includes certain nuts and seeds as well as other plant foods, contain a secret ingredient that has eliminated cancer in a variety of indigenous peoples. Further, the theory is that cancer is not a disease, per se, but a nutritional deficiency (of vitamin B17) in the same way that scurvy is a disease that is readily curable with vitamin C from fruits. Is this true? Can vitamin B17 be a panacea for all cancer?

The worldwithoutcancer.org website reads:

Vitamin B-17 is one of the main sources of food in cultures such as the Eskimos, the Hunzas, the Abkasians and many more. Did you know that within these tribes there has never been a reported case of cancer? According to Dr. Krebs, we need a minimum of 100 mg of vitamin B-17 (the equivalent of about seven apricots seeds) too nearly guarantee a cancer free life. Foods that contain vitamin B-17 are as follows:

• KERNELS OR SEEDS OF FRUIT: The highest concentration of vitamin B-17 to be found in nature, aside from bitter almonds. Apple, apricot, cherry, nectarine, peach, pear, plum, prune.
• BEANS: broad (Vicia faba), burma, chickpeas, lentils (sprouted), lima, mung (sprouted), Rangoon, scarlet runner.
• NUTS: Bitter almond, macadamia, cashew.
• BERRIES: Almost all wild berries. Blackberry, chokeberry, Christmas berry, cranberry, elderberry, raspberry, strawberry.
• SEEDS: Chia, flax, sesame.
• GRASSES: Acacia, alfalfa (sprouted), aquatic, Johnson, milkweed, Sudan, minus, wheat grass, white dover.
• GRAINS: oat groats, barley, brown rice, buckwheat groats, chia, flax, millet, rye, vetch, wheat berries.
• MISCELLANEOUS: bamboo shoots, fuschia plant, sorghum, wild hydrangea, yew tree (needles, fresh leaves).

Two rules of thumb: According to Dr. Krebs, the basic concept is that sufficient daily B-17 may be obtained by following either of two suggestions:

First, eating all the B-17-containing fruits whole (seeds included), but not eating more of the seeds by themselves than you would be eating if you ate them in the whole fruit. Example: if you eat three apples a day, the seeds in the three apples are sufficient B-17. You would not eat a pound of apple seeds.

Second, one peach or apricot kernel per 10 lbs of body weight is believed to be more than sufficient as a normal safeguard in cancer prevention, although precise numbers may vary from person to person in accordance with individual metabolism and dietary habits. A 170-lb man, for example, might consume 17 apricot or peach kernels per day and receive a biologically reasonable amount of Vitamin B-17.

And two important notes: Certainly, you can consume too much of anything. Too many kernels or seeds, for example, can be expected to produce unpleasant side effects. These natural foods should be consumed in biologically rational amounts (no more than 30 to 35 kernels per day).

The “Krebs” person to which this site refers is a researcher/physician who claims that B17 works effectively against cancer. He was the leading researcher in this particular field of cancer study.

It is beyond the scope of this particular website, nutritionresearchcenter.org, to determine whether there is really something to the B17 claims. The reader should do the homework him/herself.

For certain, there are a lot of politics played in modern medicine because there is a lot of money at stake in the drug business, and the cancer treatment business — it’s a multibillion dollar enterprise. And money plus politics gets in the way of ordinary people who just want to be healthy and get the help they need. You may also read the book World Without Cancer for more information on this topic. The author, Edward Griffin, spends a great deal of time pointing out the dirty politics involved in the so-called war on cancer. If anything, this offers the reader an alternative point of view and an insight into the shenanigans of the cancer industry and all of its major players.

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