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Abby's Magazine - September / October 2014 | Page 13 Binding Agreement "Fiber is protective against cancer," says Dr. Koutoubi. "It binds to bad fat and plays an important role in the body, helping to eliminate toxins more quickly." Fiber may help protect women from breast cancer. (Int J Can 1994; 56: 173-6). "Lycopene, an antioxidant in tomatoes "…helps neutralize free radicals so it's very important," says Dr. Willett. "Lyco- pene is supposed to reduce the risk of breast cancer as well and other cancers," says Dr. Willcox. Researchers be- lieve lycopene protects against cancers of the prostate, lung and stomach and, to a lesser degree, the pancreas, colon, rectum, esophagus (throat), mouth, breast and cer- vix (J Natl Cancer Inst 1999; 91:317-31). Fish, like salmon, tuna, and mackerel, all contain omega-3 fatty acids, which may lower cancer risk. "Omega-3 fatty acids have been associated with a lower risk for a number of hormone-associated cancers, like breast, for example," says Dr. Willcox. Unless you are eating fish or flax several times a week, you're probably not getting enough." Aim too, he says, for a high intake of healthy monounsaturated fats like olive oil. The Lightness of Eating Less Eating less can also drop your cancer chances. "Our me- tabolism (and how much we eat) is our biggest source of free radicals over a lifetime," says Dr. Willcox. "It's like a little nuclear reactor in the sense that we all have to generate energy and if we don't control those reactions they can damage things. One of the most important overall fac- tors…associated with decreased risk of cancer is low calo- rie intake." Time to dabble in vegetables and undersize your portions to supersize your anticancer lifestyle! Cancer Protection From Quercetin Quercetin has been shown to possess numerous anticancer properties, including the ability to in- terrupt the rapid cell proliferation cycle in growing cancers, and to induce apoptosis, the programmed cell death that cancer cells have lost. Quercetin's actions appear to be cancer type and site specific, with its most aggressive action on the most aggres- sive and rapidly growing cancers of the blood (leu- kemia), brain, lung, uterus, and skin (melanoma). Additional data suggest that quercetin is highly ef- fective in preventing the division of colon cancer cells as well. Indeed, one small human study has al- ready shown that the combination of quercetin with curcumin, another potent anti-inflammatory nutri- ent, can slow the growth of pre-cancerous colonic polyps in patients with familial polyposis, a condi- tion always associated with colorectal cancers. Estrogen receptors present on the surface of cells can serve as growth stimulators in many cancer types, including lung cancer. A unique property of quercetin is its ability to modulate the activity of estrogen receptors, and in a lab study, this attri- bute was shown to reduce the proliferation of lung cancer cells. It was also demonstrated that quer- cetin binds to estrogen receptors just as tightly as tamoxifen, the drug most commonly used in breast cancer therapy. As a result, quercetin effectively inhibited proliferation of dangerous drug-resistant breast cancer cells, while also preventing their accu- mulation into lump-like clusters capable of growth and invasion.