I think that this quote by Mark Twain is particularly relevant to the theme of this article: "The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like and do what you'd rather not." It appears that there is a lot of proven and academically accepted statistics around the causes of cancer. From my perspective, a large percentage of them point to something that I believe strongly: "Cancer Can Be Beaten"

Results from a study presented at the 2009 “Live Strong” global cancer summit suggest that the costs in the global fight against cancer cases will soon reach $305 billion U.S. a year. This study estimated that this year (2009) will add 12.9 million global cases of cancer, and in 2020 and 2030 this figure will reach 16.8 million and 27 million respectively. This report also pointed out that this year's global cost of cancer treatment gap reached $217 billion, and calls on all countries to increase investment in cancer control.

In fact, the Harvard Report on Cancer Prevention estimates some of the relative risk factors that cause death from cancer to be:

• Smoking - 30%
• Obesity and Diet - 30%
• Lack of Exercise - 5%
• Excessive Alcohol Consumption – 3%
• Excessive Exposure to Sun – 2%
• Salt, Food Additives, and Contaminants – 1%

Do you see anything on that list that is forced on you? Do you see anything that you don’t have control over? That list totals 71% of known cancer causes. The other 29% contains some uncontrollable such as toxins in the environment from industrial and chemical pollutants. We have no control over that. There are people out there who are fighting to keep our planet green and eliminate these sorts of things but that’s a big battle, and it’s one that we’re not taking on in this article.

And there is a very small percentage that is based in genetic heredity. That’s also not one that anyone has any control over but another form of cancer causing agent that you do have absolute control over is the food that you eat. There’s a section later on in this series of articles about reading food labels and understanding what ingredients are cancer causing. I encourage you to read it a few times and commit it to daily practice. I think you’ll be absolutely shocked at what goes in to almost all of our processed or manufactured foods.

More on that in a bit. What you need to know is that a lot of what people are eating today in the “traditional” North American and European diets is not traditional at all. You see it in the rising rates of obesity and heart disease. You see it in the rising rates of cancer and other deficiency diseases. You can control what you eat.

Many writers tend to quote research or studies that reveal some insight about the tragic or negative side of cancer: death rates, percentage of gender demographics that will contract various types of cancer, rising costs of cancer care etc. If you dig a bit, however, there are some curious statistics that suggest that an alternative approach to managing cancer has some promise. For example, from Anticancer: A New Way of Life by Dr. David Servan-Schreiber, quoting numerous scientific studies, some interesting observations:

• A research lab mouse named “Mighty Mouse” contracted no cancer when injected with astronomic doses of cancer cells equivalent to 10% of his body weight. Many of his offspring exhibited similar resistances. This lead to a breakthrough discovery on the power of the immune system in the battle against cancer
• The growth and spread of cancer cells relies to a large extent on a single pro-inflammatory factor called NF-kappa B, which is secreted by the tumor cells. Almost every cancer preventative is an inhibitor of NF-kappa B. There are many natural food sources that block NF-kappa B.
• Cancer tumors need tiny blood vessels to survive and grow. There are many natural food sources that prevent these blood vessels from attaching to the tumor, in effect drying it out and contributing to its regression
• Statistics from India suggest that there are 1/8th as many lung cancers as Westerners of the same age, 1/9th as many colon cancers, 1 /5th as many breast cancers, 1/10th as many kidney cancers, and 1/50th as many prostate cancers. Researchers suggest that the Indian diet, and in particular turmeric, may be a significant contributing factor to these lower rates.
• The stomach cancer rate is as much as 50% lower among Japanese peasants who consume large amounts of local mushrooms in their diets compared to those who do not
• One recent study found that Chinese women who consumed 10 grams of certain types of mushrooms per day reduced their risk of developing breast cancer by 64%. Those who also drank green tea as well reduced their risk by 89%

So you see, you can control what you eat and you can include a good amount of natural foods that contain known and well researched anti-cancer properties. I know that when I discovered this, I was a bit taken aback. I haven't been much of a junk food fan since my adolescent years but I certainly didn't know about the anti-cancer properties of some types of food until I started researching a bit more. Now my diet has changed to include some. I haven't engaged in any radial overhaul of what I eat - although there's lots of good evidence to suggest that the vegans are onto something - but I am smarter about it.

I've learned to maintain a diet of 70% healthy foods, and 30% what I want. That doesn't mean I'm going to run out and eat 30% crap foods. It simply means that if I want to treat myself to something once in a while, I can...and do. But I've done some simple things. What used to be a nice lawn in the back yard is now an ever-expanding organically grown garden loaded with all sorts of goodies.

I eat organic fresh fruits when I can get the ones we want. I drink at least 3 cups of green tea per day. I drink juices with known anti-oxidant properties. I use turmeric and black pepper in some of my cooking. I eat apricot seeds as a preventative. I don't use processed foods if at all possible and I read food labels. These are just a few examples. And the unintended bonus from this approach is that I've also dropped a bunch of weight.

In the next article, I will introduce you to some fundamental things that I think you should understand about cancer. Read on and learn...