Cancer from What You Eat

With the diagnosis of my 5 year old nephew, Ethan, with liver cancer earlier this year my senses have been elevated for anything cancer related. In the newspaper this morning I came across an article summarizing 7,000 studies into cancer and its relationship to what we eat and how much we weigh. You can read the entire article online, although listed below are the major points:

The American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund recommend:

• Maintaining a healthy body mass index of 18.5 to 24.9 (compute your BMI here)
• Limiting consumption of red meat to no more than 18 ounces (cooked) a week
• Eliminating processed meats such as bacon, ham, sausage and lunch meat (more on this point below)
• Eating five servings or more of fruit and vegetables a day
• Limiting consumption of alcohol to no more than two drinks a day for men and one for women
• Exercising at least 30 minutes a day
• Limiting consumption of salt
• Limiting processed foods high in added sugar and fat

With this guideline in mind my thoughts turn to what we feed our kids and what really should be in a sack lunch. I think for ease we like to put lunch meat between slices of bread and send it off to school or after children get home they snack on a hot dog or a slice of pizza. One section of the article reads:

Every 1.7 ounces of processed meat consumed a day increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 21%. This is a wake-up call for people who eat hot dogs or pepperoni pizza regularly.

That blows my mind. 1.7 ounces … That’s about the size of the pretzel bag I got on the plane this morning – and we all know how big that is.

My mother had her colon removed because of cancer growth over 10 years ago. She constantly tells me to avoid red meat, get enough sleep and exercise, and eat my fruits and vegetables. Looks like mom’s right on this one.