The No-Dairy Breast Cancer Prevention Program: How One Scientist's Discovery Helped Her Defeat Her Cancer [Paperback]

Prof. Jane Plant (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 11, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0312291671 | ISBN-13: 978-0312291679 | Edition: 1st PAPERBACK

One out of nine women in the United States will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. For too long, women have erroneously believed that there is little or nothing they can do to prevent this dread illness. Our major medical efforts are directed toward detecting and treating, rather than preventing, breast cancer.

Professor Jane Plant, one of Britain's most eminent scientists, contracted breast cancer in 1987. When orthodox medicine gave up and she was told she had only three months to live, she used her extensive scientific training and her knowledge of other cultures to find a way to survive. In her research, she was startled to find that in China breast cancer affects far fewer women than in Western countries. Plant considered there could be a dietary trigger for the illness. As Plant continued her research, she became convinced there was a casual link between consumption of dairy products and breast cancer.

In this book, Professor Plant shares the discoveries that allowed her to triumph over breast cancer. With a clear statement of the scientific principles behind her discovery, Professor Plant includes detailed suggestions, including menus and recipes, for ways to alter your diet by eliminating or reducing consumption of many suspected cancer-causing agents, especially dairy products, and replacing them with healthful alternatives.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Professor Plant courageously tells a compelling and very personal story on breast cancer that is a must-read, not only for women interested in this disease but also for the scientific and medical communities, who should sit up and take notice. It is time that the long-alleged nutritional worthiness of dairy be brought up for discussion."
--T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University, project director of the China-Oxford-Cornell Diet and Health Project, joint chairman of the Diet and Cancer Project of the American Institute for Cancer Research, and co-chairman of the World Cancer Research Fund.

"This important, provocative book by an impressive author cannot be ignored. Through this breathtaking personal odyssey, Jane Plant forces us all to think differently about the causes of breast cancer. Indispensable reading."
--Devra Lee Davis, Ph.D., M.P.H., Clinton Administration appointee to the National Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, visiting professor, Carnegie Mellon University

"Dr. Jane Plant provides a much-needed challenge to the conventional paradigm in dealing with the epidemic of breast cancer. This authoritative, well-researched but easily read text finally provides a focus on the powerful science of disease prevention. Here are the tools allowing women the ability to reduce their risk."
--David Perlmutter, M.D., director of the Permutter Health Center, Naples, Florida

"[This book] should be read by every...woman wishing to avoid breast cancer and to live life to her fullest potential. The book is well documented and easy to read. Your doctor should be recommending it to you."
--John McDougall, M.D., medical director of the McDougall Program, St. Helena Hospital, Napa Valley, California

About the Author

Jane A. Plant, Ph.D., C.B.E., is one of Britain's most distinguished scientists. She is chief scientist of the British Geological Survey and continues to sit on many influential government and international committees. In 1999, she was awarded Britain's most prestigious honor, the Lord Lloyd of Kilgerran Prize. Professor Plant lives in Nottingham with her husband and children.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st PAPERBACK edition (October 11, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312291671
• ISBN-13: 978-0312291679
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #413,211 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jane Plant's Program worked for me, October 31, 2010

By 

Felicity (Midwest) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The No-Dairy Breast Cancer Prevention Program: How One Scientist's Discovery Helped Her Defeat Her Cancer (Paperback)

I went through conventional treatment for breast cancer--6 months of chemotherapy, surgery and radiation. I was given the all clear. A year later routine scans showed metastatic disease in my lung--devastating news. My oncologist was hopeful but not encouraging for my long-term prospects. Incredibly luckily for me, someone close to me heard about Jane Plant and her research that suggests a link between breast cancer to dairy. I had been a daily and enthusiastic consumer of dairy products but I stopped as soon as I learned about it, and read Jane Plant's book. I was persuaded by the science, and have spent the past year almost vegan and completely dairy free. I went back into chemotherapy, and found I coped much better with the side effects because of my plant-rich diet. It hasn't always been easy (I miss cheese!), but here's the payoff: my lung tumor started to shrink within a few weeks, and I have just been pronounced cancer free. I will stay off dairy food, and I want to spread the word as widely as I can. If you've got breast cancer, or if you're at risk, what have you got to lose by giving up dairy? I feel wonderful, and I'm beginning to believe I've got my life back. Thank you, Jane Plant!

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A diet to save your life, June 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The No-Dairy Breast Cancer Prevention Program: How One Scientist's Discovery Helped Her Defeat Her Cancer (Paperback)

What we eat DO reflect how our body function. Everything that we eat wrong will accumulate into a life of illness and disease. This book details a change of nutrition venue that can literally change the health of your life. Today's society is consuming high levels of toxic chemicals from pesticides to drug-infested meats. I have followed the recommended change in my daily food choices and my (migraine)headaches and sinus allergies are gone! I've started my children on this healthy diet as well.
If you have any cancer or disease, this change will definitely give you a new outlook in life.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quit Milk, Survive Breast & Prostate Cancer, January 1, 2010

By 

Regular Reader - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The No-Dairy Breast Cancer Prevention Program: How One Scientist's Discovery Helped Her Defeat Her Cancer (Paperback)

The leading cause of death for women between 25 - 75 years of age is cancer. The type of cancer that kills the most women is breast cancer. About 1 out of 10 women will contract breast cancer.

That is a large number of wives, girlfriends, mothers, sisters, friends and coworkers who will be lost to people.

One of these victims was almost Dr. Jane Plant, the first female head of the British Geological Survey and one of the first women hired by the British Geological Survey as a scientist.

Floored by a diagnosis of breast cancer, Dr. Plant decided to respond with what she knew best: science. Part of what the British Geological Survey does is to analyze the relationship between diseases and geographic areas to find links between the disease and what is going on with the land.

Dr. Plant knew from her work that Asians of the far east do not get breast or prostate cancer as often as westerners do. It has been noticed that until recent times Asians tended not to consume milk.

Still having a growing breast cancer tumor threatening her life after having had a mastectomy, several other surgeries, several radiation treatments and chemotherapy Dr. Plant decided to remove all dairy products from her diet.

The tumor began measurably shrinking after a few days and the cancer disappeared from her body not to return.

This story sounds like a fairly typical anecdotal account. What makes this book atypical is that being a breast cancer survivor who is also a scientist Dr. Plant's book has ample citations from well respected sources to support her beliefs.

Dr. Plant's strongest argument is that cows and human beings share a hormone in common: Insulin Like Growth Factor 1 ( ILGF-1). This hormone is identical in structure in both cows and humans. Cancer is basically cellular reproduction running amok and ILGF-1 stimulates cellular growth. Higher levels of this hormone in the blood stream have been associated with increased breast and prostate cancer activity. Dairy cows have been systematically bred for centuries to produce more milk, which means that their bodies also produce more ILGF-1, which finds its way into milk. Contemporary dairy production in the US also involves feeding cows a cocktail of various hormones to increase milk production.

The dairy industry has always maintained ILGF-1 in milk is not a problem because ILGF-1 doesn't survive the human digestion process. In her book Dr. Plant quotes two contemporary studies that show that it is likely ILGF-1 does survive digestion intact and does make it into the human blood stream.

Dairy products and to a lesser extent meat are the dominant sources of ILGF-1 in the diet of most westerners.

Dr. Plant also presents citations for many studies that show possible relationships between cancer and milk. Most of them having little to do with milk fat. Dr. Plant took personal interest in this observation. Like many women she had always made it a point to eat low fat dairy products to avoid potential health issues.

Dr. Plant also gives a fascinating description of how she thinks science works and where she thinks the philosophy of contemporary cancer research has gone astray in terms of good science and has deprived people of freedom from breast cancer.

This book is not dry and maintains the tone of a personal story while being clear without sacrificing rigor with the facts.

The book also gives her personal account of what she went through emotionally and psychologically while she was being treated for cancer.

It has many useful tips for someone else who might be going through the same ordeal. For example, she is convinced that had she known about philosophical differences in the medical culture she could have delayed if not avoided her mastectomy.

Neither a vegetarian or a vegan Dr. Plant concludes her book with a dietary regime for reducing breast ( & prostate) cancer risk. It calls for a vegan diet dominated by organic produce for people who have cancer and as near vegan a diet as people are willing to tolerate to prevent breast ( & prostate) caner.

I found this book to be enjoyable as well as personally empowering. The book has a warm, personal tone. It also plays out like a fascinating detective story of science while giving the reader a lot of information to take charge of their health.