“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” Hippocrates

Warning: discussion ahead on Cancer is a little heavier than usual. But there are food choices you can, and we recommend that you should, be making now…before it’s too late.

The leading cause of death in Canada for those of us over the age of 35 yrs old is Cancer, followed closely by Cardiovascular causes. While treatments and survival rates continue to improve with modern medical advances, the indicence…the number of new cases every year continue to rise for many types of cancer.

While the causes of cancer are multifactorial, evidence is mounting supporting the increased link of exposure to environmental chemicals and pesticides to cancer risk. One area of significant concern is the infiltration of these harmful chemicals into our food and water supply.

But how many of us really think about our pesticide consumption as we peruse the grocery store aisles or order food at our favorite restaurant?

A recent piece published in the Journal of the American Medical Association may be the nudge you need to start thinking about your pesticide exposure further. This study followed almost 70,000 French adults over the course of 7 years and concluded that a higher frequency of organic food consumption was associated with a reduced incidence of cancer.

The message is simple: Eating organic seems to prevent cancer. This won’t be anything revolutionary for wellness leaning, alternative health care advocates; however if western medicine can start gathering some data, as a population, there is hope for a future with reduced pesticide exposure.

Now we know there will be those that argue this study alone does not prove that pesticides CAUSE cancer. It demonstrates an ASSOCIATION that could be multifactorial, including the most common argument that a “healthy user bias” is responsible for the findings. That means that those people in the study who more frequently chose to buy organic also are more likely to make other healthy lifestyle choices that could be responsible for the results. To hear some experts battle this healthy user argument out listen to Chris Kresser and Joel Kahn argue about whether meat consumption increases early mortality on a recent Joe Rogan Podcast.

We get it, association doesn’t equal causation…however, also consider:

-farmers, farmworkers and their families tend to have greater pesticide exposure than the general population and they also experience higher rates of several different types of cancer including prostate, ovarian and skin cancer

-children who live in homes where pesticides are sprayed on lawns and gardens have a significantly increased risk of leukemia

-golfers, golf course workers and people who live near golf courses have an increased risk of lymphomas and brain cancer

Maybe a healthy user bias, or some other scientific argument, can account for all these association findings…but we’d rather be a part of the healthy bias group that eats organic and plays this one on the safe side.

 

***PS*** If going completely organic seems too daunting of a task, start by avoiding the Environmental Working Group’s dirty dozen list.