Foods to Fight Cancer: Essential foods to help prevent cancer [Paperback]

Richard Beliveau (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 16, 2007

Detailing the key foods that have been medically shown to be beneficial in both preventing and fighting cancer, this is the must-have resource for anyone looking to get healthy and stay that way. AUTHOR BIO: Richard Béliveau, PhD, a leading authority in cancer research, holds the Chair in the Prevention and Treatment of Cancer at the Université du Quebec à Montréal, where he is a professor of biochemistry. Denis Gingras, PhD, in an oncology researcher at the Centre de cancérologie Charles-Bruneau.

Editorial Reviews

Review

". . . a fascinating and comprehensive new book." -- Martha Stewart Living Magazine, September 2007

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: DK ADULT (April 16, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0756628679
• ISBN-13: 978-0756628673
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,506 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Important Book, December 22, 2008

By 

K. Ulrich "koyote kathy" - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Foods to Fight Cancer: Essential foods to help prevent cancer (Paperback)

I wish I had read this book many years ago, as I am now a cancer survivor. However, since I intend to do my best to prevent a recurrence, it is still extremely valuable. What one reads in this book can also be read from the reports of the major cancer conferences in the country, such as the recent San Antonio Breast Cancer Conference in December.

This book begins with one of the best explanations of cancer and how it develops in our bodies that I have ever read. (And I have read a lot!) As it continues, it then relates to how food is at least equal to, if not better, than resorting to medications. How many times have we heard to eat five servings of vegetables and fruits each day? Which of them or both is meant by that admonition? This book makes it clear which and how many, and most importantly, why. Beautifully illustrated, well written for the lay person, a valuable tool in the fight not only against cancer, but for good health!

Just a follow up note: I also purchased Recipes for Foods to Fight Cancer, a recipe book produced by the same authors with celebrity chefs producing recipes using the recommended foods. (After all, how many of us know how to fix seaweed?) However, while it is attractive and interesting, I would have preferred more simple, every day recipes, rather than gourmet recipes. Stick with Foods to Fight Cancer and you'll have all the information you need.

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you are fighting cancer, buy THIS book, April 18, 2009

By 

Elaina E. Jackson "Cool Aunt" (Lake Tahoe) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Foods to Fight Cancer: Essential foods to help prevent cancer (Paperback)

My husband is fighting pancreatic cancer, and we are looking to do everything possible to make him healthy. I purchased several books on anti-cancer foods, but this one was the one based mostly on research, fact and data. The others seemed more anecdotal and less based on solid information.

Although it is published in 2007, it still has great information. It is missing some newer information (i.e., Triphala & Capscaisin), but overall, it is the BEST resource out there that I have found (and I have been looking).

The authors explain the biology and chemistry behind their recommendations in an understandable and useful way. EXCELLENT BOOK. You should buy it even if you are healthy, as it will show you how to prevent cancer as well.

81 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The authors: excellent men; the book: not so hot, February 12, 2010

By 

JBG (Champaign IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Foods to Fight Cancer: Essential foods to help prevent cancer (Paperback)

Foods to Fight Cancer provides important information, but I advise you not to buy it. Far better, and definitely worth you money, is Anticancer--A New Way of Life.

FtFC is evidently a well-meaning but unsophisticated effort by laboratory researchers to write a book for popular consumption.

A book of fewer than 200 pages, FtFC has nearly 30 full-page color illustrations presenting virtually no useful information. For example, page 168 shows an attractive Asian child eating an orange, with a small caption recommending whole foods as superior to supplements. Almost ten more such pages include only a little information. For example, page 155 presents an "artistic" photo of a glass of wine along with four superimposed sentences.

Much space in the central eleven chapters recommending specific foods is taken up with historical and literary irrelevancies. For example, the discussion of green tea includes, among other things, a brief discussion of the Boston Tea Party, and a longer account of supposed historical reasons why Americans presently prefer black tea to green tea. At the other extreme, a fair amount of technical information is presented that is of no obvious use. For example, page 112 uses most of a page to present the chemical names and structural formulas for the principal polyphenols in green tea.

End-of-chapter summaries are a good idea, but in FtFC they are constrained by a Procrustean hexagon background so that all summaries are of about the same dimension no matter how much information might usefully have been included in a particular summary.

With irrelevancies removed and some careful editing, my guess is that the useful content of FtFC could be presented in a pamphlet of less than thirty pages.

The specific foods discussed are:
* Cabbage, and cruciferous vegetables generally
* Garlic, onions, and allium family vegetables generally
* Soybeans and certain soy foods (but not soy supplements)
* Turmeric, a spice, always with a small amount of black pepper
* Green tea
* Berries (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, etc)
* Omega-3 fats (fatty fish like sardines, salmon, mackerel; flaxseed)
* Tomatoes
* Citrus fruit
* Red wine
* Dark chocolate

I found some useful pointers in the haystack, enough to cover the back and front of an ordinary postal envelope, and a couple tables of useful standard information (pages 73 and 123). There is also occasionally some MISinformation, as when, on page 97, the authors recommend eating raw soybeans, something you definitely do not want to do.

The authors of FtFC did humanity a great service by uncovering much precious information about foods that fight cancer. It took considerable professional courage even to undertake the pioneering effort. They also deserve praise for seeking to convey their findings past the stolid inertia of the medical world directly to the public. But they are better researchers than they are popular authors. The book you want is Anticancer--A New Way of Life; it provides a great deal more useful information. Be aware, though, that although Anticancer was first published only in 2007, there is already an updated 2009 edition.