Cancer Prevention

Cancer Prevention

It is scary to think that 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women will get cancer in their lifetime and in 85% of the time it is because of lifestyle choices. I say no more, let’s end this needless trend now.

I was talking to someone at a birthday party today and we were discussing health issues. They said that we are all going to die of something someday, so we should eat whatever we want and have fun doing it. I politely disagreed and added that what we do now with our health determines our exit from this world. We are all building up health credits in life (or expending them rapidly), like saving money by putting it into the bank, on a continual basis. I prefer to die in my sleep of old age rather than from a protracted battle with cancer.

Trainer Tip

I decided to continue the discussion that I started at the beginning of the week about “Cancer Prevention”. This subject, I feel, requires additional consideration given the scope of it’s involvement in our lives.

Red and Processed Meats

The link between colorectal cancer and high consumption of red and processed meat has been established through studies conducted by the National Institute of Health and a number of European studies. The researchers concluded that red-meat eaters had a 28 to 30% increased risk of colorectal cancer and a 20% increased risk with processed meat eaters.

N-nitroso and Meat Consumption

Processed meats like bacon, hot dogs, sausage, and bologna contain nitrites that are added to preserve and color meat. N-nitroso compounds, which are known to cause cancer in laboratory animals, form in meat when amines and amides (found in protein) interact with nitrite additives.

N-nitroso compounds increase in the body after the consumption of red meat, which researchers concluded was due to the meat’s heme iron (red meat gets its color from heme iron). Non-heme iron (found in leafy greens, beans and grains) did not increase the presence of N-nitroso...