Drink this, not that, eat more of this, less of that. It can be hard to decipher all of the nutritional advice that is available for ourselves and our children on a regular day. The issues become heightened when a child is diagnosed with cancer. Food is the one thing a patient or parent can have a tiny bit of control over in a situation that can feel out of control. I see it in the parents’ eyes and they always have four questions:
- Did my child’s diet short on vegetables and long on carbs cause this to happen? No, it did not. To date, no epidemiologic study (population study) has shown a specific risk of developing childhood cancer with any particular diet, or lack thereof. Foods and diet can influence cancer development in adults and we have good evidence of that. For example, in this picture, the black line is the death rate from stomach cancer in women. You can see there has been a steady decline in the rate since the 1930s. We know that refrigeration started in the early 1900s and was widely used by the 1950s. The decrease in the incidence and thus death rate are likely due to a change in diet that had less cured meats and more fresh foods. Also, if you look at the upward trend of lung and bronchus cancer since the mid 1960s, you can see the effect of the increased number of women who started smoking. This trend increased for several years, and hopefully we are a plateau with that and will see a steady decline as a result of anti-smoking education. Because childhood cancer is a cancer of development, we don’t see the same environmental influences on its development as we do in adults.
- Can a special diet help them tolerate the therapy better? If Vitamin C is purported to boost the immune system and the doctor is telling me the immune system is going to be weak during the therapy, then certainly more vitamin C must be helpful, right? No. Earlier, I talked about how doxorubicin creates free radicals to damage cancer cells. Vitamin C is an antioxidant whose job it is to mop up free radicals. If you don’t have cancer, mopping up free radicals is a good thing because they damage cells. If you have cancer and I want to damage cells, and vitamin C is mopping up my cancer weapon, that’s a problem. Likewise, many many herbal supplements, vitamins, and teas interact with medications and make the medication levels higher or lower in the body which can produce toxic side effects or as above, make the chemotherapy less effective.
- Does cancer feed on sugar? Technically yes; all living things need sugar to be alive. However, if you cut all sugars out of your diet and only ate protein, your body would utilize your muscle (your heart is a muscle!) and fat to create sugar to feed your vital organs such as your brain. A human body needs sugar to live. There is no evidence to support that a diet high in sugar either causes childhood cancer or makes an existing tumor worse. Could we all decrease the amounts of added sugars and processed carbohydrates from our diets? Yeah of course, and that’s probably not a bad thing, but it’s not a necessary step to tip the odds in the favor of a cure.
- Is there anything my child can’t eat? Yes, I recommend steering clear of things that are known to cause food-borne illnesses such as unpasteurized dairy products, raw oysters, shady gas station sushi, under cooked chicken, etc.
Bottom Line: A well balanced diet that is moderate in added sugars and salts is the best way to go. Ask your doctor before utilizing any supplements if you are taking any medications, especially chemotherapy.
#morethanfour #ChildhoodCancer365
Like what you just read? Show us some love and share it too!
2 thoughts on “Vitamins, Diet, and Cancer”