Whole-Food Guide for Breast Cancer Survivors (8 page)

Plastics

Plastics are ever present in our lives. Phthalates, the compounds that give plastics their flexibility, are involved in virtally every step of the food preparation, delivery, and storage chain. Commercial food is commonly processed using plastic equipment. Plus, it is packed and distributed in plastic-lined boxes and cans, most of which contain the chemical bisphenol A (BPA), an alleged endocrine disruptor and carcinogen. At home, many people deposit and then reheat leftovers in plastic containers that can transfer small particles of plastic into the food. The salt, fat, and acid found in many foods make matters worse by facilitating the transfer.

Phthalates are also contained in air fresheners, carpeting, cars, cleaners, computers, flea collars, floors, furniture, insect repellants, medical devices, nail polish, paints, perfume, PVC water pipes, rainwear, shampoo, shoes, shower curtains, shrink-wrap, teething rings, toys, varnishes, and many other consumer products (Berkson 2000). They are even used in pharmaceuticals to help enable timed-release dosing.

The association between phthalates and breast cancer has been hotly debated for over two decades. Plastic industry lobbyists (SPI 2009) claim that people’s exposure to single-product compounds is well below toxic-exposure limits and causes no problems. Health experts and environmentalists (Takahashi and Oishi 2000) counter, however, that although exposure to one type of plastic may be below toxic thresholds, none of us is exposed to only
one
type of plastic. Europeans are taking no chances. Phthalates have been prohibited in cosmetics in Europe for decades (EU Council Directive 1976). The European Union widened its ban on phthalates in 2005 (EU Council Directive), issuing a directive against this highly suspect compound in children’s toys and all oral child-care products.

BPA: The New Bad Kid on the Block

BPA is a xenoestrogen; that is, it is thought to mimic the effects of estrogen in the body. You’ll find it mainly in polycarbonate plastic bottles and the linings of food and beverage cans. It also finds its way into rivers, house dust, and just about anywhere official tests have been run. Like phthalates, it winds up in the food with which it comes into contact, particularly when that food is prepared at high temperatures.

In a 2007 survey, the EWG examined common sources of BPA in foods and the degree of exposure in people, and reported that:

• Over half of ninety-seven cans tested contained BPA. Chicken soup, canned ravioli, and infant formula had the highest levels of BPA of all products tested. Of four hundred people tested, BPA was detected in over 95 percent of them.
  
• For one in ten cans of all food tested and one in three cans of infant formula, enough BPA was found in a single serving to expose a person to more than two hundred times the government’s designated safe level of BPA exposure for industrial chemicals.
  

The FDA does not offer oversight of BPA levels found in food, despite the fact that more than one hundred peer-reviewed studies have found BPA to be noxious even at low doses.

POSSIBLE CONNECTION TO BREAST CANCER

BPA is apparently connected to breast cancer, although the risk seems to be more conclusive in infants whose mothers had high exposure during pregnancy. One group of animal researchers found that fetal exposure to low doses of bisphenol A “resulted in long-lasting effects in the mouse mammary gland that were manifested during adult life” (Murray et al. 2007).

The authors of
Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival?
, a book that examines environmental impacts on health, believe, as do other experts, that exposure of human fetuses to BPA also results in prominent changes in later breast development (Colborn, Dumanoski, and Peterson Myers 1996).

GUIDELINES FOR AVOIDING BPA EXPOSURE

Are there precautions you can take at
your
stage of life? Of course. Clearly, if you are of childbearing age, it’s critical to avoid contact with BPAs as much as possible. For the rest of us, lowering our body’s burden of this toxic compound can only add to our well-being.

We consulted the EWG and the NIEHS (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences) for their recommendations, which we include among ours:

• Minimize consumption of canned foods. EWG tests have found that BPA transmits from the liner of the can into the food inside the can.
  
• Avoid eating or drinking from polycarbonate plastics, used in products such as plastic baby bottles, sippy cups, and water bottles; food storage containers; and plastic eating utensils. It’s easy to check for the type of plastic on the bottom of bottles; polycarbonate bottles, for example, are usually labeled with the number 7. Look for bottles and other containers made from glass, stainless steel, or nonclear plastic (which does not contain BPA). Note that certain metal water bottles are lined with a plastic coating that contains BPA. Look for stainless-steel bottles that are not lined with plastic (EWG 2007).
  
• Do not microwave food in polycarbonate plastic containers (NIEHS 2010).
  
• Do not drink from plastic bottles that have been sitting in a hot vehicle or that you suspect have been stored in a hot environment or previously frozen.
  
• Avoid handling credit card receipts, as they are coated with a thin layer of BPA (EWG 2010).
  

Trust Your Eyes and Nose

Many other common consumer items are potentially harmful to our health and vitality, from secondhand smoke, household cleaning products, air fresheners, diesel fuel, house paints, building materials, furniture, flame retardants (PDBEs), and dioxins to leather goods, dental sealants, glue, dyes, art supplies, dry-cleaning compounds, and many more. Trust your eyes and nose to tell you what may be hazardous: if it makes your eyes tear up or your nose run, if it smells artificially strong, if it doesn’t look or smell right, then it probably
isn’t
right.

Total Body Burden

Although pesticides, plastics, and pollutants can already be quite troublesome as single agents, the reality of our environment is that they seldom appear alone. The concept of
total body burden
, sometimes referred to as
total load
, takes into account the collective effect of all the toxins to which we’ve been exposed. And since we have all been exposed, the question is not whether we’ve been exposed or even how much, but what can we do about it? In the book
Hormone Deception: How Everyday Foods and Products Are Disrupting Your Hormones—and How to Protect Yourself and Your Family
, D. Lindsey Berkson (2000) did a groundbreaking job of alerting us to our options for reducing our exposures. Refer to her book and use suggestions from the EWG as your guide. Of course, a nutrient-dense, Eating for Health diet goes a long way, too, in helping you lower your total load!

To
Do

While the scope and range of toxins in our environment can indeed be frightful, we suggest caution, not panic. By following the commonsense suggestions in this chapter, you are taking a big step toward creating a safer environment for yourself and your family, while lowering your risk of breast cancer and all other cancers. Here are some final to-dos, based on the work of both Berkson (ibid.) and the EWG (ewg.org/bodyburden /consumerproducts):

• Instead of Teflon cookware, use stainless steel (or cast iron if iron levels are not too high).
  
• Stay away from super-strength cleaners. Try nontoxic cleaning products like baking soda, borax, and vinegar. (Helayne has had great success with white vinegar.)
  
• Be sure to turn on the exhaust fan over your gas stove when you are cooking.
  
• Avoid stain repellents.
  
• Be mindful of breathing gasoline fumes from gas-powered lawn and garden tools.
  
• Wash all new clothes before wearing them and avoid traditional dry cleaning.
  
• Steer clear of commercial air fresheners and toilet deodorants. Instead, try baking soda to absorb odors.
  
• Avoid chlorine bleach (sodium hypochlorite) and products containing it. Use oxygen bleach instead and unbleached paper products.
  
• Stay away from pesticides or fungicides that contain chlorine, especially weed killers, such as 2,4-D, which are found in most fertilizers and weed killers, and are commonly used by commercial lawn services. Avoid flea sprays for pets that contain permethrin.
  
• Make coffee using unbleached (brown) coffee filters or ones that were bleached in nonchlorine bleach.
  
• In case of occupational exposure to pesticides or other toxins, launder work clothes in a separate load.
  

We realize that making these changes overnight would be a daunting and overwhelming task. On the other hand, being aware of the problems in our environment and making small changes over time will lead to larger and more profound changes. We know because we’ve done it in our own lives. And we’re still not there yet.

Last Word

I started making changes one at a time. Some changes require a single switch in method or action; other changes require an ongoing effort. I started replacing kitchenware years ago, buying glass refrigerator dishes and bakeware to replace plastic and aluminum ones, one piece at a time. Now, I rarely use plastic bags, wrap, or containers. I won’t say never, but rarely.

I waited three years to be able to spend a hundred dollars on an entire stainless cookware set to replace the Teflon stuff I’d started with. In the meantime, I shopped at thrift stores to replace one pan or pot at a time.

But changing how I clean the house and my body was a progression of changes that took very little time and saved me a chunk from my budget. It was just a matter of replacing one product with an alternative and then getting used to the new routine around that alternative product.

Change is rarely easy or simple, but good changes can save our lives!

—D’Ann S., breast cancer survivor

5.
Nutrient Sufficiencies and Efficiencies

The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition.

—Thomas Edison

Chapter Goal: Understand what your own nutritional deficiencies are and correct them, using whole foods and high-quality nutritional supplements

Scientists and medical professionals have known for quite some time that breast cancer and other cancers occur as a result of uncontrolled cell proliferation. But exactly what causes this out-of-control growth still remains a bit of a mystery that is being pieced together, study by study. What we do know is that many carcinogens do their dirty work by damaging our DNA. The greater our exposure to carcinogens, the greater the potential for DNA damage that can lead to cancer.

When our DNA becomes damaged, our genes begin to mutate, or change form. For example, when a gene that helps control cell division is damaged, the cell can no longer control the process effectively. When carcinogens silence the genes that are designed to protect us from cancer (for example, the p53, or “tumor suppressor,” gene), we will stop benefiting from their protection. When the genes that regulate the normal life cycle of a cell malfunction, the normal process of cell death, or apoptosis, can be impeded.

So it would be fair to say that one of a cell’s top priorities is to protect its DNA. Our cells accomplish this aim by maintaining a good stockpile of repair enzymes to reverse damage and by having an ample supply of antioxidants to reduce oxidative stress. To satisfy these needs, cells must have the right nutrients at the right time. The cell membrane has the job of making sure that these nutrients gain entry into the cell as required and that toxins are eliminated as necessary.

In this chapter we’ll discuss those nutrients that seem to be most intimately related to protecting cellular DNA and performing other functions essential to preventing cancer. We’ll also discuss a few nutrients that, in excess, can raise the risk of recurrence, and we’ll share information on the safest and most effective forms of these nutrients.

We like to think of nutrition as you might think of a bank account. A sedentary lifestyle, poor sleep, and poor eating habits are the withdrawals that rob nutritional reserves. Deposits come from eating whole, nutrient-dense foods that replenish reserves. The interest is the strength and vitality that come from smart investing. At the end of the chapter we’ll give you some specific ways to discover the status of your own nutritional “bank account.”

Nutrients to the Rescue

Literally thousands of studies have uncovered a clear and distinct relationship between vital nutrients and cancer risk. One influential study (Ramesha et al. 1990) provides a powerful example. A powerful carcinogen known as DMBA was given to a group of female rats. Then the rats were given none, one of four, two of four, three of four, or all of four nutrients: the minerals selenium and magnesium, and vitamins C and A. The results were truly astonishing. When no nutrients were administered,
all
of the rats developed breast cancer. When
one
of the nutrients was given, 46.4 to 57.1 percent of the rats developed tumors, depending on the nutrient. When two of the nutrients were given in combination, the tumor incidence further decreased to 25.9 to 34.6 percent, depending on the combination. Administration of nutrients in groups of threes resulted in still further reduction of tumor incidences, approximately 16 to 23.1 percent. And when all four nutrients were given together, tumor incidence dropped to 12 percent. Remember, our DNA is 99 percent identical to that of rats. Nutrition is power!

Professor Ames’s Triage Theory

A professor of biochemistry at the University of California, Bruce Ames (2006) is one of the most frequently cited scientists in the world, with over five hundred publications and several dozen awards to his name. Ames has been working on a theory connecting micronutrient intake, cancer risk, and other degenerative diseases. Known as Ames’s “triage theory,” it suggests, among other things, that optimizing intake of the approximately forty essential nutrients (vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and fatty acids) leads to a reduction in chronic, degenerative diseases, including cancer. Let’s take a look at some of the nutrients that Ames and others consider to be the most critical ones for keeping cancer at bay. Keep in mind, however, that there’s just no substitute for getting
all
of the nutrients you need,
all
of the time, and a nutrient-dense, Eating for Health diet is your foundation for accomplishing this.