1. They eat foods native to their territory, whether it be plant or animal in origin. Don’t forget that the Mongolians and Eskimos eat a predominantly meat and fat based diet, with hardly any plant food. The Mongolians, in addition, eat plenty of dairy foods. Many traditional European, Middle-Eastern and Indian diets also feature dairy products and meats.

2. Each native group obviously adapted to their respective diets, eating whatever was naturally available in order to stay alive. This is why a diet abundant in meat and fat was not harmful to the Eskimos or the Mongolians. In fact, it was protective for them, living in their harsh, wintry environments.

3. The foods they ate and beverages they drank were organic, unprocessed, unrefined and free from artificial additives like chemicals, hormones and antibiotics. Meat and dairy were completely natural and uncontaminated.

4. Foods were generally eaten fresh, freshly harvested or freshly killed. Any food preservation or storage was usually limited to salting, fermenting, drying or pickling. Modern societies tend to eat food which has been canned, packaged in some way or frozen for quite some time.

5. Cooking methods were completely natural. Nothing strange like microwaving or “nuking” in any way.

6. Kitchen utensils, cookware and materials used were also completely natural (clay, leaves, wood etc). Certainly no plastic.

7. Condiments, spices and flavorings were kept simple and natural. Nothing artificial.

8. In Asia, if oil was used for cooking, it was what was indigenous to the territory eg. peanut oil, coconut oil, soya bean oil, ghee (clarified butter), or lard (made from animal fat). “Healthy” fats like olive oil or grapeseed oil were unheard of.

9. If a sweetener was used, it was natural eg. cane sugar, palm sugar or honey.

10. Carbohydrates were fine and even essential, but they were usually natural, unrefined and free from artificial additives eg. tapioca, sweet potatoes, corn, beans, nuts, seeds, potatoes and other tubers.

11. No leftover food was kept. Everything was made fresh and finished in one sitting, so food did not have a chance to deteriorate further.

12. Usually, native people ate only what they needed, or even starved at times for a while. Excess was a luxury, and generally reserved for special occasions. Modern people are literally indulging themselves to death.

13. With the exception of people living in harsh environments like the Mongolians and Eskimos – where meat and fat was more readily available than plant foods – most native diets are dominated by plant foods. Meat was considered a luxury item to be eaten sparingly or reserved for special occasions. If seafood was available, that was eaten more often than meat. Modern societies consume far more meat than our forefathers did, and the meat we eat today is mostly adulterated and contaminated.

14. Almost all native societies have some fermented foods. These foods are rich in anti-cancer properties. Think sauerkraut, kimchi, miso, tempeh and yoghurt.

15. Almost all native societies have a rich tradition of using herbs for food, healing and beauty. The Chinese, for instance, have a vast variety of herbal teas, using herbs, flowers, roots, tree bark, fungi etc. I grew up drinking herbal teas and soups, but switched to Western concoctions and drugs and soda pop from my early teens. Now that I’m older and (hopefully) wiser, I’m beginning to rediscover Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and learning how to use traditional herbs at home.

16.The true native lifestyle is physically active, even rigorous, on a daily basis. Exercise was a way of life. People living in urban societies are very sedentary, and obesity has become an epidemic.

17 The environment and air was clean and pure. There was no exposure to modern contaminants like chemicals, radiation, electrical currents, vehicle and industrial emissions etc.

18. Furniture, building materials, fabrics etc was all organic.

19. There was no obsession with cleaning or enhancing body or home with products saturated with chemicals, unlike today.

20. People slept early and woke up early. Their sleeping environments were completely dark and quiet, except perhaps for the sounds of nature. No night lights, street lights, blinking lights, TV etc. Perfect for melatonin production.

These are just a few of my observations. As I said in my opening paragraph, the people who adulterate this “formula” are the ones who start getting all kinds of sicknesses, including cancer. Of course, observing a strict native diet and way of life is challenging in an urban society. But I believe we need to try our level best, in order to be cancer-free, even if it means re-locating. Major miracles often require major changes.

So, should we consume green tea, or soy, or turmeric, or flaxseed, or berries, or cruciferous vegetables, or iodine, or dark chocolate etc. or load up on more supplements? I think we know by now that each in itself CANNOT defeat cancer. Diet alone won’t cut it. Even vegetarians and exercise fanatics get cancer, right? A radical, holistic approach is required, and this may include some medical intervention. To keep cancer and other diseases at bay, it’s back to basics, back to our roots.

GO NATIVE, as far as it makes sense. In other words, if you’re a Mongolian working in a nice, cushy office in New York, the traditional Mongolian diet may not be healthy for you in this context. Adapt it to your present living environment, eliminating elements which are harmful (eg. unnatural foods, high-fat diet, chemicals, being sedentary) and adding those which are protective (eg. daily exercise, lots of plant foods, natural foods, fresh foods, safe personal care and household care products, conducive sleeping environment and times).

As long as your foods are natural and your way of life is as native as possible, a little dairy food or meat or dessert once in a while is not going to kill you. Just make sure it is pure, unrefined, unprocessed and fresh. Food which has travelled a long way to get to you is often “preserved” in some way to make it last the journey and storage. They also lose their nutritional value with each passing day.

Avoid anything artificial or unnatural, eat fresh, don’t over-indulge, lose weight, learn how to use herbs for everything, eat some fermented foods regularly, live in a pure and uncontaminated environment, sleep well and exercise everyday. GO NATIVE!

Most cancers remain about the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen, one critical reason being that they are unable to grow further without a blood supply. Tumors need to grow blood vessels in order to feed and spread. However, healthy bodies have natural antiangiogenic mechanisms which regulate angiogenesis, the process through which our bodies create new blood vessels.

Angiogenesis is an essential part of a normal, functioning body. In healthy people, new blood vessels grow only under specific conditions, for instance as part of the healing process for an injury, or during pregnancy. Healthy individuals have a natural system of checks and balances – known to scientists as angiogenesis stimulators and inhibitors – to regulate the growth of blood vessels.  Explains Dr. Li, “The stimulators act as natural fertilizers to get vessels to grow, and the inhibitors prune back extra vessels when they’re no longer needed”.

Forty years ago, Dr. Judah Folkman – Dr. Li’s mentor – presented his thesis in the New England Journal of Medicine that a growing tumor could be “starved to death” by cutting off its blood supply. That theory was initially met with scepticism. Today, every major pharmaceutical company has an angiogenesis program. The first FDA-approved antiangiogenic cancer drug, Avastin, is well-established.There are 12 antiangiogenic drugs on the market for cancer treatment, with some 26 more in the final stages of human testing and another 100-plus behind them in human trials.

You can boost your body’s ability to produce angiogenesis inhibitors. Natural antiangiogenic food sources or angiogenesis inhibitor food sources include:

Green Tea
Strawberries
Raspberries
Blueberries
Blackberries
Oranges
Grapefruit
Lemons
Apples
Pineapple
Cherries
Red Grapes
Red wine
Cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, brussels sprouts, bok choy, kale etc.)
Soy beans
Ginseng
Licorice
Turmeric
Nutmeg
Cinnamon
Artichokes
Lavender
Pumpkin
Sea Cucumber
Seaweed
Tuna
Parsley
Rosemary
Thyme
Oregano
Basil
Mint
Garlic
Ginger
Tomato
Olive Oil
Grapeseed oil
Omega 3s (salmon, tuna, trout, mackerel, cod, sardine)
Dark chocolate
Walnuts
Hazelnuts
Pecans
Mushrooms (Maitake, Reishi, Agaricus subrufescens also known as Agaricus Blazei Murill Mushroom or Almond mushroom or Himematsutake /Japanese “princess matsutake”, Trametes versicolor or Turkey Tail in the United States or Yun Zhi in Chinese, Phellinus linteus or Japanese “meshimakobu” or Chinese “song gen” or Korean “sanghwang”).

This list is not exhaustive, but it’s a good start. I hear a bar of dark chocolate calling to me right now and, for my own good, I should give it my undivided attention!

It’s a good thing I like cabbage and other cruciferous vegetables, as phytochemicals such as indole-3-carbinol (I3C) and sulforaphane are components of cruciferous vegetables which exhibit antitumorigenic activity. In the digestive tract, indole-3-carbinol produces a metabolite (product of metabolism) called diindolylmethane (DIM), a new class of antiestrogens that inhibit breast cancer growth. DIM also encourages cells that are abnormally multiplying to stop reproducing and die.

Research shows that it is possible for the stronger and more dangerous form of estrogen (estradiol) to be converted into the weaker form (estriol) without using drugs. As all women who have had breast cancer know, estradiol fuels breast cancer. For this reason, aromatase inhibitor drugs (Ais) were invented to block the production of estrogen. Unfortunately, like most drugs, aromatase inhibitor drugs have serious side effects. Also, not all kinds of all estrogen are harmful. Estriol is a weaker and relatively harmless form of estrogen. Being less active than estradiol, it is desirable for it to occupy the estrogen receptor as, by doing so, it effectively blocks estradiol’s strong “grow” signals.

In 1997, researchers at Strang Cancer Research Laboratory at Rockefeller University discovered that diindolylmethane or DIM can change “strong” estrogen to “weak” estrogen and, when this happens, it stops human cancer cells from growing and provokes the cells to self-destruct, a process known as apoptosis. Subsequent studies done at the University of California at Berkeley show that DIM inhibits some human breast cancer cells from growing by as much as 90% in culture.

Apparently, DIM is the most active phytochemical in promoting the synthesis of protective hydroxylated estrogen (2OHE). Also known as 2-hydroxyestrone, 2OHE and 16-alpha-hydroxyestrone (16OHE) are metabolites of estrogens. 2OHE is biologically inactive, while 16OHE is biologically active meaning that, like estradiol, it can send “grow” signals. In cases of breast cancer, the ‘bad’ 16OHE is often elevated and the ‘good’ 2OHE is decreased. Studies show that people who take DIM not only have beneficial increases in estriol, they also have beneficial increases in 2OHE. Low levels of the 2OHE have been linked to breast cancer (in both women and men), uterine cancer, cervical cancer and lupus.

If you’ve had breast cancer, regular consumption of cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, turnips, kale, green cabbage, collard greens and mustard greens is a very good idea. While cooking such vegetables, creating mild acidic conditions by adding some lemon juice or vinegar helps convert indole-3-carbinol (I3C) to the active cancer-fighting substance DIM. No wonder fermented vegetables like sauerkraut and kimchi are recommended cancer-fighting foods. Go ahead and indulge in these vegetables!

This recipe for carrot, celery, orange and coriander soup is a good way to get these carrot benefits into your body. Celery and coriander are also sources of apigenin, a natural aromatase inhibitor, while oranges are a source of naringenin, a natural aromatase inhibitor as well. In addition, oranges are a traditional source of Vitamin C, an antioxidant. If you’re dealing with an estrogen-driven health condition like breast cancer or endometriosis, this is one dish you should try out. Not only does it taste delicious, it can also be eaten chilled and it can even be frozen. How convenient is that?

For added antioxidant and cancer-fighting benefits, try adding turmeric.

Carrot, Celery, Orange & Coriander Soup
(4-6 servings)

Ingredients
1 kg carrots, washed, peeled and cut in chunks
2 stalks / ribs celery, washed and cut in chunks
3 shallots, peeled
1-2 garlic cloves
20 grams coriander, washed; reserve leaves for garnish
Juice and zest of 1 orange (reserve zest for garnish)
1 tsp white or black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 litre water

Method
1. Wash, peel (where needed) and cut all vegetables.
2. Put all vegetables in a large stockpot with the water. Bring to boil then simmer till tender.
3. Add orange juice and stir.
4. Blend soup to your desired consistency. Add more water if needed. Season to taste.
5. Serve warm or chilled, garnished with coriander leavers and orange zest.

Lose Weight
The most dangerous form of estrogen, estradiol, is manufactured in fat cells as well as various places in the body, so it stands to reason that the less fat you carry, the lower your estrogen levels will be. Through a process called aromatization, fat cells actively convert precursor hormones to estradiol, and will continue to do so even after menopause. Excess fat stores both endogenous (produced naturally within the body) and exogenous (originating from outside the body) estrogens. Avoid consuming large meals, as these cause insulin surges in the body which, in turn, wreak havoc with hormones, estrogen in particular.

Increase Consumption of Phytoestrogens
Phytoestrogens are plant chemicals which mimic estrogen. Estrogen facilitates the binding of certain cancer chemicals to receptor sites on good cells and this feeds the cancer. Phytoestrogens are a weak form of estrogen which compete with your body’s natural estrogen to fill these receptor sites, so that the harmful form of estrogen cannot take over these sites. Without the harmful type of estrogen feeding the cancer, the cancer cells starve to death.

Beans (including soybeans), lentils, pulses, peas (including chickpeas), green vegetables, carrots, red peppers, herbs and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cabbage are good sources of phytoestrogens and protective carotenoids. Asians, particularly Orientals, eat lots of soy foods. The Japanese diet, as well as the traditional Chinese diet, is rich in soy foods, and adherents of such traditional diets are known to have a low incidence of cancer. Modern diets typically do not include enough phytoestrogens to protect us from cancer. Be greedy with these foods; eat an abundance of them.

Eat More Estrogen Blockers
There are foods which help to block estrogen from dominating your body. Increase your intake of these estrogen inhibitors.

Reduce Consumption of Animal Fat
Numerous studies have reported that consumption of animal fat, including dairy products, causes many health problems, such as heart disease and cancer. In countries where growth hormones are given to dairy herds, milk has been found to contain high levels of Insulin Growth Factor (IGF 1), which has been shown to affect insulin, estrogen and other hormone levels. Swedish researchers have identified a link between the volume of dairy consumed and the risk of prostate and testicular cancers.

Animal fat also contributes to weight gain (remember the documentary “Super-Size Me”?) which, in turn, produces more fat cells in the body where estrogen can be manufactured and stored.

Vegetarians have half the cancer rates of meat eaters. There are lots of delicious non-animal based foods to enjoy nowadays. There are even mock meats, or vegetarian meats which taste and feel amazingly like real meat. Check them out at Asian grocers and supermarkets. There are plenty of yummy alternatives to dairy products too. Go discover!

Use Natural Progesterone
Natural progesterone acts to balance out and control estrogen levels. Use safe progesterone creams like those made from wild yam, such as Neways’ Endau.

Boost Your Melatonin Levels
Melatonin is a hormone produced naturally by the body when we practise good sleep habits like sleeping at regular times and sleeping in darkened rooms (light prevents the production of melatonin). This hormone is a potent antioxidant as well as an estrogen balancer, and our bodies produce it about an hour after we fall asleep in a darkened room. Interestingly, people who are blind rarely have breast cancer, whereas people with irregular or poor sleeping patterns , and night shift workers, are more cancer-prone.

Melatonin in supplementary form, like Megatonin, can also be used to boost melatonin levels.

Recent research on chocolate and stroke risk includes two large studies which suggest that dark chocolate helps lower the risk of stroke. In the first study, 44,489 people ate one serving of dark chocolate per week. Tough work, but somebody had to do it. Anyway, the researchers found that these people were 22% less likely to have a stroke than people who did not eat chocolate.

The second study covered 1,169 people who ate 50g of chocolate once a week. The chocolate-eaters were found to be 46% less likely to die after a stroke compared to people who did not consume chocolate.

Other studies have shown that consuming a small portion of dark chocolate every day can reduce blood pressure in people with high blood pressure. Chocolate is also said to reduce LDL cholesterol. This dark confection contains serotonin too, which acts as an anti-depressant.

Before you celebrate this good news by wolfing down a whole box of chocolates, here’s a cautionary word from researcher Sarah Sahib of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario: “More research is needed to determine whether chocolate truly lowers stroke risk, or whether healthier people are simply more likely to eat chocolate than others.”

If dark chocolate isn’t your thing or if you’re concerned about putting on weight, an antioxidant supplement containing cocoa bean extract, like Neways Revenol, might suit you better.

At a recent conference, the head of Angiogenesis Foundation, William Li, said that dark chocolate and red grapes join blueberries, garlic, soya bean and tea as ingredients that starve cancer while nourishing bodies. The foundation works at identifying foods containing natural chemicals that choke off blood supplies to tumors, starving them to death.

It pitted some foods against approved drugs and found that soya bean, parsley, red grapes, berries and other comestibles (foods containing essential nutrients which help to maintain life) were either as effective or more potent in battling cancer cells. Eaten together, the foods were even more effective in fighting cancer.

If you’ve never tried it before, red wine and dark chocolate go really well together. Why not treat yourself to this powerful cancer-fighting combination tonight? If you’re not much of a drinker, like me, try to keep your fridge stocked with red grapes. After indulging in a handful or two, treat yourself to a piece of really dark chocolate. Mmmm. Now that’s what I call good medicine!

According to a recent article in the Washington Post, mindful eating is a spin-off from a lifestyle practice called mindfulness, which is about slowing down to savour life’s details, noticing small things and appreciating every sensation. Mindful eating is not a diet. Instead, it focuses on the way you eat, rather than what you eat. So, instead of eating haphazardly and mindlessly at meals, shovelling food into your mouth, you:

- Decide in advance how much to eat, and what to eat. Rather than piling food on your plate, be selective about what you choose to put into your body. Brian Wansink, author of the book “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think”, goes further by suggesting that you make half that amount vegetables and fruit, the other half protein and starch. Psychologist Susan Albers advises that before taking anything, you should ask yourself whether you really want to eat that item. Would you really enjoy it? Are you really so hungry? Take only what you really, really want.

- Before you start eating, pause and soak in all the sights, sounds and scents of the gathering. If it’s a holiday party, enjoy the atmosphere. Train yourself to use all your senses to relish the food.

- Take your time to savour your food. Appreciate how every morsel smells and tastes. Notice the temperature and texture. Put your cutlery down while you slowly chew each bite, enjoying every moment.

- After you’ve fully savoured each bite and swallowed, then pick up your cutlery again and enjoy another bite.

- Try to be the last to finish eating. Eat slowly. Don’t rush the experience.

- By the end of the meal, you will not only be full, but truly satisfied.

Some tricks to help you remove obstacles to healthy eating include not arriving at a meal hungry, as that may cause you to wolf down more than you should. Another one is using small plates rather than large dinner plates. Your food portions will then seem more substantial. Using tall, thin glasses instead of short, squat ones will also help control your fluid intake without reducing the pleasure. Thin glasses hold less liquid. If your host presses you to take a second helping, take a teaspoonful rather than a full serving. This way, you satisfy your host without sacrificing your waistline.

Eat mindfully, and you’ll probably enjoy your meals and the company more than ever before, and without weight gain too.

1) Drink more water
Drinking water before you eat helps to give a sense of fullness, so you’re less likely to binge. Water also helps to improve bowel movement and detoxification. Other fluids you can take are sugar-free ones like plain tea and coffee (without milk or cream) and herbal teas. Go easy on the ones with caffeine, of course. If you must have a soda, make sure it’s sugar free. Fresh fruit juice is another good option, and it also helps to flush out the toxins from your system.

2) Indulge in fresh fruit for dessert
This will definitely be a challenge, but try to avoid desserts which are loaded with sugar and fat. If you want a treat, have a tiny portion. Tucking into plenty of fresh fruit will help to satisfy a craving for something sweet, making you less inclined to gorge on unhealthy, sugary foods. Indulging in fruits will also nourish your body with vitamins, minerals, enzymes and fibre.

3) Watch your carbohydrate intake
Carbohydrates aren’t necessarily evil, but they can be bad for you when they’re saturated with sugar and fat and other noxious ingredients. Be fussy about what you put into your mouth. Always choose the healthier option, rather than the “heart-attack-on-a-plate”. To fill yourself up, go for vegetables, fruits and liquids like water or fresh fruit juice. You’ll then be less likely to consume large quantities of unhealthy carbohydrates.

4) Curb your fat intake
The advice for resisting unhealthy carbohydrates works just as well here.

5) Enjoy healthy snacking
Feel like nibbling? Reach for healthy snacks like dried fruit, seeds and nuts. Make yourself a trail mix you can snack on every time you feel like putting something in your mouth. Dried seaweed, Japanese rice crackers and home-made popcorn without butter, sugar or other sweet toppings are also healthy, satisfying snacks. These healthy treats will keep your mouth busy, with fewer calories and fat than the usual festive goodies.

6) Watch less TV
Reduce your television couch-potato time by half, and you’ll burn more calories. It’s not rocket science.

7) Exercise more
To prevent weight gain during the holiday season, you either need to ensure that you don’t eat more calories than usual, or you need to burn more calories. Make exercise part of your daily routine and find every opportunity to burn more calories than you normally do.

Then puberty came along when I was only about 11 years old. And the weight started accumulating insidiously on my previously gangly frame. Before I realized it, I was chubby. By the time I was 13, I had ample curves. Boys were looking at me in funny ways. I was often teased about being well-endowed for my age. It was so embarrassing.

As the years went by, more weight crept on. Crash and fad diets helped me lose some of the fat, but the lost pounds – and more – always returned eventually. I put on weight gradually, just a pound or two each year, not enough to raise a red flag. I more or less accepted that I had a more womanly figure than most. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I was around 135 pounds, way too much for a petite frame.

Since then, I’ve learned that being overweight or obese is a contributing factor for cancer. Fat is BAD NEWS. Estradiol, the most dangerous form of estrogen, resides in fat cells, so fat is particularly bad for those with estrogen-dominant cancer. Most breast cancers are estrogen-positive. Thank God, I’ve shed more than 20 pounds in the last couple of years. I’m looking forward to losing another 10 pounds.

Fat people shouldn’t be treated like pariahs, but do you know that the American Institute for Cancer Research just reported a few days ago that obesity causes more than 100,000 incidents of cancer in the US every year?

The group, which funds research on the link between diet and the disease, said 49 percent of endrometrial cancers, which originate in the womb, and 35 percent of esophageal cancers are linked to excess body fat.

“It’s clearer than ever that obesity’s impact is felt before, during and after cancer, it increases risk, makes treatment more difficult and shortens survival,” said Laurence Kolonel of the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii.

Scientists have long seen a link between obesity and certain types of cancer, but the study — extrapolated from US cancer incidence data — is among the first to conclude the link exists on such a scale.

Researchers have yet to pin down the exact link between obesity and cancer, but some have suggested that fat tissue may produce heightened levels of sex hormones that spur cancer growth or that fat lowers immune function.

If the link is proven to be true, cancers could be expected to balloon in tandem with US body sizes. According to the government-backed Centers for Disease Control, 34 percent of American adults aged 20 and over are obese. Red alert!