07 Dec Diet & Lifestyle Matter: Preventing Disease
Hormone balance is the goal of your disease-free lifestyle. Diet, exercise, weight, stress and environmental toxins are important factors that play the major roles in your hormone balance and your personal disease risk. Simply put, improving these fundamental aspects of lifestyle can significantly improve our odds against diabetes, cancer and heart disease.
Exercise
The health enhancing, disease preventing, age defying benefits of regular exercise are backed up by reams of research attesting to the fact, that all things considered—exercise is still the best medicine!
For starters, it decreases insulin levels and the presence of insulin resistance. This is significant because as we recall, insulin is a “growth factor” that encourages breast cancer cells to grow, multiply and divide. It also leads to an inflammatory state in the body, which is fuel to the fire in terms of heart disease. The effects of exercise in lowering insulin, insulin resistance and inflammation in the body cannot be overstated when it comes to keeping disease at bay.
Foods to Reduce Disease Risk
The fact that fruits and vegetables are abundant sources of antioxidants and bioflavanoids (plant chemicals) endows them with great potential to reduce the risk of cancers, diabetes and heart disease. They are also rich in naturally occurring enzymes and fiber content that rid the body of metabolic waste by binding them up and preventing their reabsorption back into the system.
I encourage women to eat fresh fruit of deep color (avoiding the high glycemic fruits like pineapple, banana etc. that raise blood sugar) and vegetables of the dark, green, leafy and cruciferous varieties, especially spinach, kale, broccoli, cabbage, etc., that assist proper estrogen metabolism. Studies looking into adequate vegetable consumption have identified enzyme properties in crucifers that promote estrogens down the more favorable “2-hydroxy” metabolic pathway, known to be protective against breast cancer.
It is always preferable to purchase organic produce if you want to avoid the hotbeds of xenoestrogens contained in fruits and vegetables that have been sprayed with pesticides. For those who can’t always buy organic, or get the optimal five servings of fruit and vegetables a day, extracts in powder or capsule form (see my Vital Greens) are a viable alternative. In a nutshell, the simpler and more natural the better.
Dietary Fats and Disease Prevention
We know that a low fat diet can discourage the formation of harmful estrogen byproducts while high animal fats tend to increase it. While numerous studies have documented that some fats, such as those found in olive oil, fish and fish liver oils, can slow the growth of cancer cells, the findings can be ambiguous since some fats are thought to promote breast cancer while others are not. I join with those who say that fat is an important nutrient but it has to be the right kind of fat:
- Bad: Animal fat from beef and pork may stimulate cancer and increase heart disease risk
- Neutral: Dairy fats do not show an effect on breast cancer
- Good: Omega 9 fats, especially olive oil
- Good: Omega 3 fats found in nuts, fish, fish oils, flax seed oil)
Eating for Disease Prevention
Organic foods that have not been pumped up with synthetic growth hormones are essential to maintaining a normal hormone balance. A controlled diet of certified organic foods can help reduce the influx of toxic estrogens into our system.
Some of the best common sense nutritional guidelines include:
- Choosing organically produced nutritional building blocks: vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, seeds, legumes and meat, poultry and seafood raised without growth hormones or antibiotics.
- Be aware that processed foods that carry low fat or nonfat labels are often overloaded with sodium and sugars.
- Kick the refined carb and sugar habit.
- Include natural fats and oils in moderation; avoid hydrogenated oils and margarines; look for extra-virgin olive oils and butter.
- Include organic fiber, the great equalizer, detoxifier, and metabolizer of toxins in the body.
- Identify and eliminate problem foods that may cause allergic reactions and inflammation in the body such as too much dairy, soy, gluten, corn, etc.
Choose to stick with a low fat/good fat, high fiber, high-quality protein diet that is loaded with fresh fruits and leafy greens and your odds for beating diabetes, cancer and heart disease just got better!