5 Ways to Reduce Your Cancer Risk Today

1. Filter your water

• Brita filter (good) 
• Berkey filter (much better) 
• Reverse osmosis system (best)*

Ideally, you should filter both drinking and bathing water.

Our largest organ (skin) absorbs substances within seconds to minutes, depending on their chemical makeup.

*The one downside to reverse osmosis systems is that along with the contaminants, a large percentage of the minerals are removed. Use mineral or electrolyte drops to counteract this. 

Common contaminants in US tap water include:

• microorganisms (E. coli, Giardia, and noroviruses)
• inorganic chemicals (lead, arsenic, nitrates, and nitrites)
• organic chemicals (atrazine, glyphosate, trichloroethylene, and tetrachloroethylene)
• disinfection byproducts (chloroform)

Source: US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Learn what’s in your tap water. 

Learn more about water filters here.

2. Evaluate your oils and fats

Avoid or reduce your intake of inflammatory oils/fats: 

a. Refined vegetable oils, trans fats, + partially-hydrogenated fats:

• Non-organic canola oil
• Cottonseed oil 
• Rice bran oil
• Safflower oil
• Soybean oil
• Peanut oil
• Processed, packaged foods
• Margarine

These fats are GMOs, and extracted using solvents and high heat. 

As a result, they are chemically altered and oxidized (spoiled) before they reach the shelf.

b. Trans fats: commercial baked goods, such as cakes, cookies and pies, shortening, microwave popcorn, frozen pizza, refrigerated dough, such as biscuits and rolls, fried foods, including French fries, donuts and fried chicken, and nondairy coffee creamer and stick margarine.

Replace with organic  and cold pressed:

• Extra virgin olive oil 
• Coconut oil 
• Grass fed butter + ghee
• Canola oil (organic, cold pressed only)
• Avocados, avocado oil
• Cod liver oil
• MCT oil
• Sesame seeds, oil
• Cacao butter
• Pork lard – highest quality only
• Flaxseeds, flaxseed oil fresh ground, stored in dark bottle (unheated)

Avoid/significantly reduce:

• Grain-fed or farmed animals/seafood
• Conventionally raised poultry + eggs
• Deep fried food

Replace with: 

• Wild caught fish & seafood
• Pastured poultry, eggs
• Grass fed/finished meat
• Cook animal proteins “low and slow”. (Equal to or under 300 degrees F) 

3. Keep a Food Log

Many people experience GI distress. Wouldn’t it be nice to know why? 

Unidentified food allergies and sensitivities are a common culprit for chronic GI issues. This gastric distress is not only uncomfortable, it is damaging to your entire body.

Dysfunctional digestion = reduced nutrient absorption and systemic inflammation.

Chronic inflammation = DNA damage and reduced repair, suppressed and/or dysregulated immune function, brain fog, fatigue, etc.

Dysfunction digestion and chronic inflammation are also significant risk factors for colorectal cancer, which has become one of the most common cancers in the US. Colorectal cancer has joined the ranks of some of the most fatal cancers; lung and pancreatic cancer. 

 
What to Do:

Keep a log for at least 4 days (3 weekdays, 1 weekend day) to identify irritants, and food allergies/sensitivities. 

1. Track food, beverages, supplements/meds, mood, movement, and bowel movements. 
2. Look for patterns. 
3. Keep in mind that allergic reactions can be immediate or develop over 72 hours.

4. Go Organic

Non-organic foods have been sprayed with harmful pesticides. 

In the US, the top 5 most commonly used pesticides are atrazine, alachlor, metalochlor, glyphosate (Roundup™), and 1,3 dichloropropene. 

All of these have shown carcinogenic potential and are banned in other countries.

Ingesting the residues present on non-organic foods increases:

• Toxic burden
• Body-wide inflammation
• The likelihood of food intolerance
• Gut permeability (leaky gut)
• Kidney abnormalities

and risk of:

• Depression and attention disorders
• Blood cancers
• Mutagenic DNA effects

ingesting these carcinogens also reduces:

• the body’s output of glutathione, an otherwise powerful natural antioxidant.

Organic food, on the cheap:

Farmers markets, produce boxes from CSA farms, and discount stores like Grocery Outlet and Costco can help keep the cost low while still benefiting from high quality food. 

If going completely organic is not within budget, review the EWG’s Clean 15 list for non-organic produce with the lowest pesticide residues.

5. Reduce sugar to 35g per day

Track using the Cronometer app (free)

You’ll be shocked by how much you eat in just one day!

Eating sugar:

• Affects sleep and mood patterns
• Alters gut microbiome
• Feeds abnormal cell growth (cancer)
• Changes what you perceive as “sweet” i.e. an apple now tastes bland 
• Increases cravings, creating a vicious cycle

Tips to reduce sugar cravings:

1. Eat meals every 4-5 hours. 

Always eat a source of protein and healthy fat. 

2. Drink water throughout the day. 
3. Replace sweetened products with unsweetened versions.

i.e.: unsweetened milks and yogurt

4. Be on the hunt for sugar  in all its forms.

Food labels can claim “No sugar added” but use artificial sweeteners instead, or use one of the 60+ alternative names for sugar. ie: date syrup, molasses, sucrose, maltodextrin.  

5. Utilize herbal support 

Cinnamon, berberine, and the adaptogen Tulsi (Holy Basil) all have been found to reduce blood sugar levels. 

Berberine is found in Oregon Grape root, and Barbary root. These roots, cinnamon, and Tulsi can all be found in tea form. 

Find them at your local market or herb shop or online at Mountain Rose Herbs. (The product found in herb shops and from Mountain Rose Herbs is significantly higher quality, fresher, more potent, AND cheaper.)

Sugar is addictive.

How can you expect to break the habit if it’s hidden in nearly everything you eat and drink?

Here’s a list of “sugar names” to help you with tip #4…

• Agave nectar
• Blackstrap molasses 
• Cane sugar
• Confection’s sugar 
• Date sugar
• Diastatic malt
• Florida crystals 
• Galactose 
• Golden syrup 
• Icing sugar
• Maltodextrin
• Muscovado 
• Refiner’s sugar 
• Barbados sugar 
• Brown sugar
• Caramel
• Corn syrup 
• Corn syrup solids
• Demerara syrup 
• Diatase
• Fructose 
• Grape sugar
• Invert sugar
• Organic raw sugar
• Rice syrup 
• Treacle 
• Barley malt
• Buttered syrup 
• Carbon syrup
• Dextran
• Ethyl maltol 
• Fruit juice
• Glucose solids 
• High fructose corn syrup 
• Lactose
• Maple syrup
• Panocha
• Sorghum syrup
• Turbinado sugar
• Beet sugar
• Cane juice crystals
• Castor sugar
• Crystalline fructose 
• Dextrose
• Evaporated cane juice
• Sugar has many names: 
• Honey 
• Malt syrup
• Molasses
• Raw sugar
• Sucrose
• Yellow sugar
• Xylitol
• Sorbitol
• Maltitol
• Erythritol
• Monk fruit
• Fruit juice concentrate 
• Golden sugar

Pick one thing from this list to work on this week.

Just one!

You don’t have to change everything today, but you do have to start somewhere. 

Whichever point from the list feels accessible and attainable, start there. Habits build upon each other, so let’s start with an easy win!

More Resources:

Get your free guide: How to Reduce Toxic Exposures

References

A New List of Carcinogenic Pesticides Used on Food. Accessed October 22, 2024. https://eap.mcgill.ca/MagRack/JPR/JPR_18.htm

Morris RD. Drinking water and cancer. Environ Health Perspect. 1995;103 Suppl 8(Suppl 8):225-231. doi:10.1289/ehp.95103s8225

Parada H, Steck SE, Bradshaw PT, et al. Grilled, Barbecued, and Smoked Meat Intake and Survival Following Breast Cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2017;109(6):djw299. doi:10.1093/jnci/djw299

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