CUT YOUR RISK OF CANCER BY UP TO 40%

By one of UK’s top specialists

WiNtEr is just around the corner, and with the fresh threat of a second wave of Covid-19, you are probably thinking of giving your immunity a boost by buying some vitamin pills.

if so, you’re hardly alone — up to 70 per cent of us admit to taking supplements regularly or intermittently.

Each year in the UK we spend £442 million on mineral and vitamin supplements — and sales of these and other nutritional products have jumped by 17.3 per cent since last year, according to the Health Food Manufacturers’ Association.

there is a lot of confusion about what supplements actually are — people tend to refer to all supplements as vitamins and minerals — but that’s only one category of this expanding nutritional market.

Others include extracted phytochemicals, proteins, probiotic bacteria and concentrated whole foods, which all have different roles to play in our health.

But given the vast array of tablets out there, which should we take?

in our series so far, i’ve been explaining why i believe our diet and lifestyle can be more important than the genes we inherit. this conviction is based on a lifetime’s work as an NHs consultant oncologist, as well as my own years in research clinics studying how different food and habits can help cancer patients — and everyone else.

it’s also the subject of my new book, How to Live, in which you’ll find more science-based advice on how to cut your cancer risk and live a healthier life.

so no one is keener than i am to investigate precisely how different elements in our food might help our health and our battle against cancer in particular.

it’s generally well-known that severe deficiencies in vitamins, minerals and healthy fats can damage your immune system, leading to a range of diseases including heart disease and type 2 diabetes as well as cancer.

For example, the well-known Epic (European Prospective investigation into Cancer) study reported that people deficient in vitamin A, C and E had an increased risk of breast, ovary and other cancers.

Despite the availability of food, many of our diets are not as nutritious as they could be.

For instance, did you know as a nation our biggest source of vitamin C is actually potatoes, not because they are particularly high in the vitamin but simply because we eat so many of them (and generally speaking relatively little fruit, which is packed with vitamin C).

Alarmingly, as countries get richer, the diversity of the typical diet shrinks. today, 75 per cent of the world’s food supply comes from only 12 plants and five animal species.

the solution eagerly suggested by the supplement industry would be to take mineral and vitamin pills.

But is it that simple? As someone who’s studied the research extensively, i have to say that it’s a mixed picture.

scientists mostly agree that supplements and tablets are not needed at all if you’re eating a balanced nutritious diet — and our bodies really are efficient at extracting beneficial minerals and vitamins out of our food.

that said, we do live in the real world and i accept that not everyone is as motivated as i am to eat a wide range of different vegetables, fruit and herbs every day (though i hope that this series will encourage you to make some changes to this!)

And although they may not do any good (and aren’t always cheap) most supplements are safe.

However, there is evidence that certain types of supplement — particularly those high in vitamins A and E — can actually do harm.

Vitamins A and E are both powerful antioxidants that act directly to mop up free radicals, which as we’ve seen can go on to cause cell mutations and cancer.

While it’s almost impossible to consume too much in your diet — this isn’t true if you isolate them into concentrated form in a tablet.

the problem is that these antioxidants don’t have an off-switch — so taking too many of them doesn’t just mop up excess free radicals, but goes on to destroy more, and in doing so upsets the ‘oxidative balance’ in your cells (which is actually needed for healthy functioning). in fact, large studies show that too much vitamin A and E can actually increase your cancer risk.

this is why the World Cancer research Fund and Memorial sloan Kettering Hospital have issued statements that taking long-term mineral or vitamin supplements, without a recognised need, is not required and could do more harm than good.

But i’ll look at this in more detail later.

Evidence shows you should also be wary of fish oil supplements. Although their high content of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids is beneficial (as they play a key role in regulating our immune systems and cannot be manufactured by our bodies), some studies are now suggesting that they might actually increase men’s risk of prostate cancer, particularly if they take them regularly over periods of time.

it’s thought that may be partly

related to an excess of vitamin E, but more research is needed.

But based on my experience and all the research I’ve conducted, in my view it really is best to eat the whole food — or a supplement containing a wholefood concentrate — rather than trying to drill down and isolate individual minerals, elements and micro-nutrients.

A good illustration of this is the wellloved tomato, staple of sauces, salads and dishes all over the world and shown to have many healthy properties.

Population studies show that people who eat more tomatoes have a lower cancer risk, which has been attributed largely to the phytochemical lycopene, as I explained on Saturday.

Yet lab studies didn’t back this up. Research looking at the benefits of lycopene didn’t show anti-cancer benefits (though those involving extract of whole dried tomato did). And a prestigious Cochrane review in 2011 had insufficient evidence to demonstrate a benefit between lycopene supplements and prostate cancer incidence.

A great deal of focus has traditionally been placed on vitamins and minerals, but as I’ve previously explained, the vital role of phytochemicals — naturally occurring compounds in fruit and vegetables, herbs and spices that are massively beneficial to our health — tends to have been overlooked.

These are contained in food supplements made from concentrated whole foods and in my view have a useful role to play in overcoming dietary deficiencies — particularly during times of oxidative stress or inflammation, which can lead to cancer.

They are also useful to take when you are recovering from a virus — and trials are currently under way examining how phytochemicals may help in the fight against Covid-19, for instance — or undergoing chemotherapy or following surgery.

An increasing body of new research is beginning to demonstrate these considerable benefits of whole food supplements — including the Pomi-t trial I was involved in (see box on the right), which demonstrated that a supplement containing a combination of pomegranate, turmeric, broccoli and green tea can slow the progression of prostate cancer.

It’s certainly an exciting and developing area of research — with new discoveries continually being made about how this can improve our immune systems in general and help us combat the risk of cancer, too.