We were interviewed by Talk Radio about diet and cancer and the new fad about anti-inflammatory diets. There may well be an association between processed food and red meat and cancers, but the non medical community may have hijacked the word "anti-inflammatory" without any evidence that these diets actually reduce inflammation.
We were interviewed by Talk Radio about diet and cancer and the new fad about anti-inflammatory diets. There may well be an association between processed food and red meat and cancers, but the non medical community may have hijacked the word "anti-inflammatory" without any evidence that these diets actually reduce inflammation. We would agree that the following foods need to be avoided:
Ready meals
Fizzy drinks
Alcohol
Red meat
Ready made sauces, curries and condiments
Refined carbohydrates (think industrially produced bread, pastries, cakes and pies)
Processed meat, such as sausages
We strongly advocate the Mediterranean or Nordic diet which is high in oily fish, olive oil, nuts, fruit and vegetables.
Diet advice has changed over the past 20 years. For a long time fat was seen as the enemy particularly because of the high rate of heart disease and stroke. Before the availability of cholesterol lowering medications, very low fat diets were proposed, for example limiting egg consumption to a measly one per week.
Recent evidence has shown that in fact sugar is the greatest problem in our diets and that we should re-introduce fat in order to have a more balanced diet which is low in refined carbohydrates . Fruit, fibre and vegetables are of course important, and the Mediterranean diet referred to above appears to be the most healthy. Avoiding processed meat products is sensible advice too as well as keeping alcohol consumption to a minimum.
