Vegetarian, but not a vegetarian junk--part 3

(Continued from Part II about the health danger of HFCS)

Here are the interesting results published by Stanhope, (Stanhope, AJCN, 2008, 87 regarding the studies on 7 healthy adult men who were provided each meal that had a portion of the beverage (~ 25% of kcal) of one of the following sweeteners: fructose, glucose, sucrose and HFCS. Throughout a 24 hour period, these men were monitored with triglycerides, insulin, glucose, leptin and ghrelin. The triglyceride results are shown in Fig.1.

Looking at the results shown above, if glucose (from refined flour products)is bad (because it causes insulin spike) HFCS is the worst sweetener comparing to fructose and sucrose.

Triglyceride formation is linked to uric acid formation. According to Khosla who published his results in Kidney Int, 2005, 1739, human infusion of uric acid led to impaired endothelial NO release which is the leading mechanism for hypertension and insulin resistance (** Roy, Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab, 1998, 274, E692.**). The impacts of uric acid on the cardiovascular mortality rate is shown below. (** Fang, JAMA, 2000, 283, 2404)

For each category of race and gender, as the serum uric acid is greater than 416 (for men) or 333 (for women) micro-mole/L (the last bar), the mortality rate is substantially larger than the groups with lower serum uric acid levels.

The link of HFCS to cardiovascular mortality is due to the fact that fructose increases uric acid level as shown in the following graph (** Akhavan, AJCN, 2007, 86, 1354.**)

(to be continued).

Vegetarian, but not a vegetarian junk--part 2

(Continued from Part III)

HFCS-55 contains approximately 50% fructose and 50% glucose. Glucose and fructose are different both in molecular geometry and in metabolism. Glucose is 6-ring carbon hydrate and is directly absorbed into the blood stream for energy and many physiological function. The brain needs a steady supply of glucose to function normally. When the products made of flour such as noodle, or rice are digested, those polysaccharides are broken down into glucose and is absorbed in the blood stream. Our body requires glucose to function. However, 'blood glucose spike' is the problem because it forces the body to secrete insulin in a very irregular manner. In the long run, it causes insulin resistance--the root of all major chronicle illness.

Fructose is a 5-ring carbon hydrate. It is metabolized in liver. Through this complicate biochemistry process, it does not only partially convert into glucose; however, more importantly, it also produces uric acid and triglycerides; both are markers of inflammation in the body and are the main causes of insulin resistance.

Sugar is a disaccharide consisting 50% of glucose and fructose. So, what is the difference between HFCS-55 and sugar? Well, fructose and glucose are covalently bonded in sugar while in HFCS-55, they are just the physical mixture. Sugar is hydrolyzed in stomach while HFCS-55 is stable in acidic environment.

HFCS, fructose, and sugar have been studied (** Livesey, AJCN, 2008, 88, 1419)regarding triglycerides, insulin resistance, uric acid metabolism and blood pressure. The results are astonishing. Based on the following research (** Oarks, J Nutr, 2008, 138, 1039; Chong, Am J Clin Nutr, 2007, 85, 1511; Stanhope, AJCN, 2008, 87, 1194), fructose, fructose:glucose increases post-prandial and fasting triglyceride level. Triglyceride is also not only a marker of inflammation but also a source of insulin resistance.

(To be continued.)

Vegetarian, but not a vegetarian junk-- Part 1

In the previous two posts on how to heal and reverse cancer with the diet, I emphasize on avoiding eating animal-based protein based on numerous original research publications; primarily from Professor Campbell's group at the Cornell University. The conclusion was that animal-based protein is both an initiator and a promoter of cancer. Avoiding eating animal-based protein can shrink foci (pre-cancer) at least in the rats.

While I am promoting vegetarian diet, I do not promote the so-called 'vegetarian junk-food diet'. What they are? They are floor-based food products including breads, bagel,noodles, and most importantly High Fructose Corn Syrup based foods that include soft drink, fruit juice, fruit punches, many processed foods (including yoga, Granola bar). The following information is mostly taken from Professor Debra Perason's presentation. Dr. Pearson is a nutrition science professor at UW-Green Bay. I consult with her every time I need nutrition advice.

The bottom line of avoiding floor and High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is that both categories causes insulin resistance which is one of the causes of cancer (Reference: Read over my post over 'Sun Rise, Sun Set, and Grounding for Cancer Healing story.) HFCS can also cause many other health issues which will be discussed here.

Most of my readers know about the hidden danger of eating floor-based food, I would just focus on High-Fructose Corn Syrup Product in this blog story.

High-fructose corn is produced by milling corn to produce corn starch, then processing that corn starch to yield corn syrup which is almost entirely glucose. Enzymes(that include alpha-amylase, glucoamylase, and xylose isomerase) were then added the syrup to convert the glucose into fructose. The resulting syrup contains approximately 90% fructose and is HFCS 90. To make other common forms of HFCS (e.g. HFCS 55 and HFCS 42), the HFCS 90 is mized with 100% glucose corn syrup in the approximate ratios to form the desired HFCS. Those common forms of HFCS are used almost everywhere from soft drinks, fruit juices, and other baked process foods. They have detrimental health impact.

Thus, my advice to the readers: Please read the food nutrition ingredient label before you consume the product. (To be continued.)

Let's us Learn How to Let Go

The Cost of Holding On:

Tightly clench your hand. After a few seconds, you'll notice
how tiring it is to do this.

Holding on takes energy. It doesn't really matter what we're
holding on to, a relationship, job, or material possessions,
it all takes energy.

And as the clenched hand exercise illustrates so well, you
can't reach out or grasp anything new when your hands are
clenched to hold on!

Why We Don't Let Go:

There are many, many reasons why we don't let go. Sometimes
it means facing our grief or other challenging emotions. For
example, we might not want to let go of a relationship
because then we'd have to face our fear of being lonely. Or
we might not want to let go of a job because we'd feel
worried about money.

It's really helpful to identify these emotions. Here's a
sentence completion exercise that will help you identify
what emotion is holding you back. Finish this sentence with
the first thing that comes to mind.

"If I let go of (fill in your situation) I'd have to face my
_________________.

Once you've identified the emotion that's holding things up,
practice letting that emotion go all by itself. Just for
now. Using the above illustration, the person who's worried
about facing their loneliness could practice saying, "I let
go of my worry about feeling lonely. For now."

I use the phrase 'for now' because we can only work with
ourselves in the present tense.

It helps to remind yourself that all things change. All
things. Winter isn't a failure because spring is here.
Change is the natural rhythm of things. In my experience,
more damage is done by holding on to things too long than is
done by letting go of something too early.

A Behaviour Modification Technique:

Here is a technique you will find helpful. Write a phrase or
few sentences about something you'd like to let go of. Eg:
"This situation at work" or "My feelings about D." Now,
scrunch up that paper and burn it or throw it away or rip it
into pieces. There's something powerful about putting things
into a physical form like this that makes it feel more real.

Letting Go in Stages:

Another thing that will help you let go is to do it in
stages. Start with a little, then work up to something
larger. Like any muscle, letting go is a skill that gets
easier with practice. I find this particularly helpful with
thoughts and emotions that I need to release. I'll just ask
myself to let go for an hour. Or an afternoon. Or a day...
Baby steps. Do you know if you change the direction of an
airplane by just one degree, it will arrive in a whole
different country? Small works.

Reframe the Thought:

Lastly, reframe the idea of letting go and think of it
instead as moving things along. Moving things along is being
in the natural flow of life and it involves releasing so the
new can come in. We release the old air in our lungs so the
new air can come in. We release what's in our intestinal

Healing and Reverse Cancer Starts at the Kitchen (Part 2)

(Continued from Part 1)

[4] AF dosage dependent

Even at a higher AF ingestion, low protein diet still show lower foci (pre-cancer) formation than the high  protein diet. #33, #34. Chart1

 Chart 1:  Low AF yet High Dietary Protein shows more pre-cancer than High AF yet lower-protein Diet.

At 20% level of protein, foci increased in number and size as expected, as AF dose was increased. At 5% level of protein, dose-response curve completely disappears. #34, Chart 2.




 Chart 2:  High-protein diet shows AF response curve to AF-dosage. No such response curve is seen at low protein diet.


#33. Appleton BS and Campbell TC, "Inhibition of Aflatoxin-initiated preneoplastic liver lesion by low dietary protein" Nutr Cancer 3 (1982). 200-206.

#34 Dunaif GE Nd Campbell TC, "Relative Contribution of Dietary Protein Level and Aflatoxin B1 dose in generation of presumptive preneoplastic foci in rat liver." J Natl Cancer Inst. 78 (1987) 365-369

[5] Low Protein Diet can reverse the course of the cancer, yet high protein diet can turn on dormant cancer cell.

Rats that ingested with AF were first fed with 20% protein for 6 weeks.  Foci appeared in this 6 weeks.  When they were fed with 5% protein starting at 7 weeks, they showed the shrinkage of foci. #35

Rats that ingested with AF were fed with 5% protein for the first 6 weeks.  They showed no signs of foci development.  When they began to consume 20% protein starting at 7th week,  foci appeared. #35

#35 Youngman LD and Campbell TC, "High protein intake promotes the growth of preneoplastic foci in Fischer #344 rat. Evidence that early remodeled foci retain the potential for future growth".  J Nutr 121 (1991) 1454-1461.

[6] Plant protein does not have the same detrimental effect as the animal protein.


  Soy or wheat protein, even at a 20% level did not make rats to form foci. #42, Chart 3



Chart 3: Soy Protein even fed with 20% level does not show cancer promotion


#42 Schulsinger DA, Root, MM; and Campbell TC "Effects of dietary protein quality on development of AF B1 induced hepatic preneoplastic lesions ". J Natl Cancer Inst 81, (1989): 1241-1245

Rats undergone 100 week period.  All rats were ingested with AF.  Those rats who were fed with 20% protein were all dead at the end of the study.  No sign of cancer fo rats who were fed with 5% protein. #36, #43, Chart 3.9A, 3.9B.


36. Youngman LD and Campbell TC "Inhibition of Aflatoxin B1-induced  gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase positive (GGT+) hepatic preneoplastic foci & tumors by low protein diets: evidence that altered GGT+ foci indicate neoplasticism potential" Carcinogenesis B (1992) 1607-1613

43. Youngman LD "The growth and development of aflatoxin B1-induced preneoplastic lesions, tumors, metastasis, and spontaneous tumors as they are influenced by dietary protein level, type, and intervention. Ithaca, NY Cornell U Ph D Thesis 1990



 [7]  Dietary Protein Daily Consumption Recommendation

Dietary protein less than 10% has lower rate of tumor formation.  #37.  It means 50 gm of animal protein per day which is about 1 egg only per day.  Any amount higher than 10% would be detrimental.

37. Duncif GE and Campbell  TC , "Dietary Protein Level & Aflatoxin B1-induced preneoplastic hepatic lesions in the rats". J Nutrition 117 (1987) 1298-1302

[8] HBV Studies

These studies were done with transgenic mice that  already have HBV presence.  Some of them will develop liver cancer while others not depending on the protein diet.

Transgenic rats that are inherited with HBV gene showed hepatic cancer when fed with 22% protein; less intense cancer with 14% protein; and none with 6% protein. Chart 4. 5. # 47,48

Chart 4 HBV gene can be turned on or off depending on level of protein diet

 Chart 5  Degree of liver tumors on mice depends on level of dietary protein

#47 Hu J., Cheng, Z., King J., et al "Repression of hepatitis B virus (HBV) transgene and HBV-induced liver injury by low protein diet."  Oncogen 15 (1997): 2795-2801

#48 Cheng Z., Hu, J., King J., et al "Inhibition of hepatocellular carcinoma development in heptitis B virus transfected mice by low dietary casein"  Hepatology 26 (1997) 1351-1354.

[9] DBMA and NMU Studies

Those two substances are experimental carcinogens.   Similar results were found on comparing cancer incidences between high-protein diet versus low-protein diet.  # 49-51

#49  Hawrylewicz EJ, Huang HH, Kissane JQ. et al "Enhancement of the 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA) mammary tumorigenesis by high dietary protein in rats" Nutr. Int. 26 (1982) 793-806

#50 Hawrylewicz EJ, "Fat-protein interaction, defined by 2-generation studies."  In C. Ip, D.E. Birt, A.E. Rogers and C. Mettlin (eds.) Dietary fat and cancer  pp 403-434.  New York: Alan R Liss Inc, 1986

#51 Huang HH, Hawrylewicz EJ, Kissane JQ, et al.  "Effect of protein diet on release of proclatin and ovarian steroids in female rats."  Nutr. Rpts. Int 26 (1982): 807-820

[10]  Nitrite vs. Protein

When MIT researchers reported in Science in 1979 (#15)  about the carcinogenesis of nitrite, the public reacted by not eating 'hot dogs'.  In that report, the rats fed with excess of nitrite had cancer incidences of 10.2% versus rats with no nitrite of cancer case of 5.4% .  It is only 10.2% versus 5.4% that is enough to brought to public attention.

#15. Nitrate story,  Newberne, P., "Nitrites promote lymphoma incidence in rats."  Science, 204, ( 1979), 1079-1081;  10.2% vs. 5.4%.

However, in terms of high protein diet, the statistics is 100% to 0% (Chart 6, and Reference 16)

Chart 6, 100 week of feeding of 22% protein diet, Rats are all dead.



# 16. Indian research on dietary protein, its effect on cancer.  Madhaven, TV, Gopalan, C., Arch Path  85, 1968, 133-137.  "Effect of dietary protein on the carcinogenesis of aflatoxin.



[11]  Vegetarian Diet does not have to sacrifice the good taste



After reading those original publications, I began to change my diet; and it doesn't have to sacrifice with the good taste.  Let me show you my typical plate for lunch in the following chart:

The top bowl is a vegetable soup with Kale, brocklie, carrort, mushroom, and tomotto in a broth of miso and pepper.  The lower left, I have onions, radish, garlic, coconut flakes, avocado, and self-fermented sauerkraft.  On the lower right are strawberry, grapes, sweetpepper, sliced apples on salad green.

Healing and Reverse Cancer start at the kitchen (Part 1)

Healing and Reverse Cancer start at the kitchen.  I know many of you have deep doubt.  Initially, I feel the same thing.  However, with my school nutrition professors' helps and with my diligent research on original publications, I come to the following conclusions:  Stay away from animal-based food as much as possible, you will have better chance in both preventing and reverse cancer.  I will include original publication including charts to convince you that animal proteins do several things in different stage of cancer:  (1) cancer initiation; (2) cancer promotion; (3) magnify toxicity of carcinogen; (4) remember carcinogen imprint even the cancer is in remission.

I should say that the following research are all based on experiments on rats.  There are three types of carcinogens that will be discussed in this blog story:

(1) Aflatoxin (AF):  This is the most potent carcinogen found on the mold that infested on peanut and corn.  Most of the research report in this blog are all based on AF.

(2) Hapatic B Virus (HBV):  This virus can also cause liver cancer in mice and in human.


(3) DBMA (7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene) and NMU (N-nitrosomethyl urea), Those are additional 2 experimental carcinogens.

AF Study

[1] Good-quality Protein is a double-edged sword

Proteins are classified as 'good-quality protein' and 'bad-quality protein'. The so-called 'good quality protein' implies that when these proteins are digested, they turn out all the essential amino acids we need for repair and for synthesizing new enzyme.  Animal-based proteins are the 'good-quality' protein because they foot the bills.  However, in terms of metabolizing toxin, even they detoxify most of the toxin, they produce minute amount of very toxic metabolites that are detrimental:  initiate and promote the cancer, etc. For example, AF is metabolized, or detoxified by the MFO (mixed function oxidase) enzyme in the liver.  However, during the detoxification, some minute amount of very toxic metabolites are produced.  This makes 'protein' , a double-edge sword:  even we need protein for repairing, too much protein actually help initiate and promote cancer.  (See Charts 1&2)

 
Chart 1:  The Enzyme Factory.  The MFO detoxify AF while at the same time produce minute amount of highly toxic metabolite. Animal Protein is a double-edge sword.



 Chart 2:  High-protein diet has enhanced enzyme activities in the body.
 
[2] High-Protein Diet helps on Cancer Initiation

 Low-protein (5%, or 25-30 gm per day) diet help reduce cancer initiation via low DNA binding to AF toxin.  (Charts 3-2, 3-3)  References : #23, #33, #37, #36,  In all studies, rates were ingested with AF, then subject to low-protein diet and high-protein diet.  Following are the original publications on the studies.

#23. Preston RS , Hayes JR, and Campbell, TC "Effect of Protein deficiency on the in vivo binding of aflatoxin B1 to rat liver macromolecules", Life Sci., 19, (1976) 1191-1198

#33. Appleton BS and Campbell TC, "Inhibition of Aflatoxin-initiated preneoplastic liver lesion by low dietary protein" Nutr Cancer 3 (1982). 200-206.

37. Duncif GE and Campbell  TC , "Dietary Protein Level & Aflatoxin B1-induced preneoplastic hepatic lesions in the rats". J Nutrition 117 (1987) 1298-1302

36. Young man LD and Campbell TC "Inhibition of Aflatoxin B1-induced  gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase positive (GGT+) hepatic preneoplastic foci & tumors by low protein diets: evidence that altered GGT+ foci indicate neoplasticism potential" Carcinogenesis B (1992) 1607-1613

                       Chart 3--  Low dietary protein reduces cancer initiation.

[3] High-protein diet promotes cancer

These parts of the studies were done on rats of 12 week study instead of 100 weeks studies because of the cost.  The researchers observe 'foci' or pre-cancer development in rats rather than full tumor which can only be observed after 100 weeks.

 High protein (20% or 100-120 gm per day) diet promotes cancer.  Typical American diet is 15-16% or 70-100 gm per day.  The cut-off point is 10% protein (Chart 3-6).

Chart 4:  High Protein Diet promotes foci (pre-cancer) development in rats.

Foci development observation is the primary methodology for research.  Foci are tiny pre-cancer clusters.   The methodology was taken from Reference #31

#31. Fabre E., and Cameron R., "The Sequential Analysis of Cancer Development", Adv Cancer Res (1980) 125-226



(To Be Continued on Part 2)