diet & Nutrition
Proper diet and nutrition are fundamental to your anti-cancer protocol.
Research has found that diet can play an important role in cancer care. This includes both cancer prevention as well as treatment. One of the first things many people do when they find out they have cancer is change their diet.
Because there is so much contradictory mis-information online regarding diet and cancer, many people are confused about what kind of diet is actually best for them. Furthermore, much of the dietary advice available online is non-specific individual circumstances, including the type of cancer someone is dealing with.
We are certified nutritional experts and have done the research, so you don’t have to. We customize the personalized dietary recommendations for each of our patients to take into account their unique physiology, their cancer type, and the treatments they are undergoing.
Personalized Cancer Diet
A major priority at the Center for Integrative Healing & Wellness is to keep you as healthy, and strong as possible while you undergo your journey with cancer.
One of the cornerstones of our approach is understanding and implementing an appropriate diet and nutrition. Everything you put into your body has a direct effect on your health.
We advocate a whole food, anti-inflammatory, diet as the most beneficial way of eating whether working within a cancer context or not. Ideally, this diet should be plant-based and consist mainly of minimally processed whole foods. It should also contain organic vegetables, fruits, wild caught fish, nuts, seeds, legumes, whole grains, and omega 3 rich sources of fats.
This is in stark contrast to the way most people in North America eat, also known as the “Standard American Diet (SAD)”.
Building on the general whole foods diet mentioned above, we then make individualized recommendations based on numerous different health parameters.
Fasting
Fasting is a time-honored tradition that stretches back across human history. Examples of fasting can be found across all cultures on the planet. Our ancestors knew that there were numerous benefits to fasting. Fasting restores homeostasis to the body and up-regulates cellular repair mechanisms.
Research has indicated that fasting results in a number of health benefits.
Some of these benefits include:
Decreasing blood glucose
Reducing inflammation
Regeneration of the immune system
Increased cellular repair
When it comes to oncology, it has been found that fasting while undergoing chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery can improve the efficacy of these treatments and decrease their side effects.
Further, fasting while undergoing chemotherapy can help to alleviate some common side effects of the treatment such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. One of the reasons for this effect is that fasting has been found to protect normal cells while stressing cancer cells.
This is called the “differential stress response” and through this mechanism, cancer cells are more susceptible to anti-cancer therapies. Fasting itself may have some anti-cancer activity as it has been found to induce cancer cell death while reducing growth factors that have been linked with increased cancer cell proliferation.
Fasting is not for everyone and is contraindicated in some instances. We advise that anyone wishing to undergo fasting (or a fasting mimicking diet) do so under the supervision of a healthcare provider trained in its use. If you’re curious about incorporating such a change into your treatment plan, please contact us to determine whether it would be appropriate in your case.