Customer Reviews

Foods to Fight Cancer: Essential foods to help prevent cancer

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This is an excellent book that goes into the hows and whys of the various anti-cancer foods. The book is filled with great info you won't easily find elsewhere, such as that not all Green Tea is the same when it comes to EGCG content (Japanese Green Tea has more than Chinese Green Tea). Why not swing the odds of living a long healthy life in your favor as much as possible? Eat the foods talked about in this book and you'll increase your odds of dodging the cancer bullet.

If I ever write a book, I'm going to use this as model. I found it superb in every way. The authors actually work in the field. They are genuinely commited to sharing what they have learned in the hope that they can reduce the incidence of cancer. They also have made a great effort to make the information easy to understand without dumbing it down.
Superb graphics help immensely. The word angiogenesis takes on more meaning because they have furnished a graphic showing how increased blood vessels are needed for a tumor to grow.
Unlike some authors who are content to say plant foods contain phytochemicals that fight cancer, they list specific compounds found in specific foods and the specific cancers which they fight.
I can understand why some readers may be put off by hard to pronounce chemical names, but for me it is a plus because if I want to find out more I can put the chemical name in an online search engine. It also shows that they have firsthand knowledge of the subject.
They are very thorough too. Many books mention curcumin which is found in turmeric, but do not mention its low bioavailabity and how to increase its absorption. The authors say that piperine, a compound found in pepper, can increase absortion by 1000 fold. This is very important and they supply a graph (Fig. 36) for emphasis.
I especially enjoyed the histories of the various foods - where they originated, how they were used as medicines as well as foods, and how they were altered through plant breeding.
Memorize the many fun facts they give and you will have a lot of material for small talk. For instance, did you know that:
"In 1753 when Carl Linnaeus needed a Latin name for the cacao tree he came up with Theobroma cacao, which literally means 'food of the gods'. There were no objections recorded!"
The authors, being good scientists, are also careful to include numbers - the actual mcg or mg of compounds found in foods. And, when a compound is found in more than one food there are charts for comparison so it is easy to see the best source and by how much it is better.
In all, I found it an enjoyable read. It is also a reference which I will use in making my grocery shopping list and which I will think about when I eat each food that they discussed.

Foods to fight cancer is one of the best information regarding nutrition that either will help or prevent cancer. Richard Beliveau is one of the pioneer in actual research in laboratory regarding "foods".The book is well explained and fits with the new International seller called "anticancer" (David Schreiber) which I had the pleasure to read.(available in the USA in October 2008).

The feeling of despair and helplessness when a family member or someone close is diagnosed with cancer (or if you're diagnosed yourself) has to be one of the worst feelings in the world. Suddenly your world is filled with doctors, hospitals, oncologists and lots of strange drugs and procedures you've probably never heard of before. The battle begins and you feel like you're sitting on the sidelines, being able to only supply emotional support at a time when you could probably use some yourself. This book is an excellent source of information, in layman's terms, about what cancer is, what makes it grow and how you can eat to help prevent it or give your body what it needs to slow or prevent recurrences when it's already present. It gives you information to discuss with your doctors, about how you can join in the battle.

There is no sure cure yet for cancer and this book doesn't promise one. It's a complex disease that isn't fully understood but there are a lot of things that doctors and researchers do know, many of them about molecules of dietary origin, but the results have been published only in specialized medical journals that most of us don't have access to, or even if we do, via the internet for example, the medical terminology is beyond most of us. This book gives us access to that information in terms the average person can understand.

One of the foods that I hadn't heard of for fighting cancer is turmeric or its biological name, curcumin. This is that yellow spice that makes up about 20 to 30 percent of many Indian curry powders. Studies have shown that it might be useful in the prevention and treatment of many cancers including colon, stomach and breast cancers. I was surprised to read that the incidence of colon cancer in North America is 50 out of 100,000 people compared to 8 in 100,000 in India. There are lots of other factors that could be involved, but the anticancer effect of this spice in laboratory animals is well established when administering it to them after inducing them to different carcinogens. And it helps in a unique way that's explained in this book. There are several other specific fruits and vegetables that have properties that I didn't understand before reading this book.

The authors are leading researchers in cancer and oncology, not just dietitians looking to write a book. They don't recommend any specific diet or recipes but rather give all kinds of relevant information on the ways of achieving a balanced diet which includes certain fruits and vegetables in amounts that have been shown to play a significant role in helping to prevent or fight cancer. It's a good quality book with lots of illustrations and is easy to read. I'm impressed enough to have already sent copies to a couple friends.

Lots of what you read about cancer on the internet or in other books can be pretty overwhelming. This is not a scary book. It's a book filled with hope and solid information about things you can do to join in the fight against this awful disease.

It is difficult to eat well when fighting cancer. This book makes it easy to understand simple changes to make and foods to include. When dealing with low energy, it helps to keep food inspiring, and to make it simple. The book is beautiful, and makes it easy to want to make healthier choices. I also love the companion book "cooking with foods to fight cancer."

Excellent Book! Very understandable combinations:
1)Using science to understand cancer
2)Using Science to understand food benefits
Most of the food groups highlighted were not new, but the coverage added a lot of credibility to the benefits.
The information on Green Tea went well beyond my previous understanding.
The information on Tumeric was completely new to me.
And the information on Red Wine was "sobering" and took away any guilt of having a glass or two a day.

Finally, the information/studies you read here and there in one place! This book is for everyone! Why don't our doctor's teach us how to help prevent cancer? You must take your health into your own hands. Foods to Fight Cancer has incredibly helpful information and beautiful pictures. It lays out what everyone should be eating and why--in a way that is easy to understand, but well documented. Everyone should have the chance to be educated with such important information. I am glad there is a companion book with recipes. That is the only thing missing from this book--recipes to make it easier to incorporate the information into your life.