Cancer and How Not to Get It

No wonder the foundation of cancer prevention... is not pills but plants. Cut down on alcohol, soda, meat, and processed junk; and center your diet around whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and beans.

When it comes to fruits and vegetables, the benefits of consuming conventionally grown produce are likely to outweigh any possible risk from pesticide exposure. So, concerns over pesticide risk should not discourage us from stuffing our faces with as many fruits and vegetables as possible.

All the common cancers—like lung, colorectal, breast, and prostate, which counts for the majority of deaths—have a long latency period, often 20 years or more. So, it's not like you were healthy and then one day you got cancer. You haven't been healthy; you've had cancer growing in you for a decade.

This is one of the major reasons why, in the context of cancer research, there's so many proponents of investigating plant foods as they can deliver a cocktail of bioactive compounds—bioactive compounds that may target most, if not all, of the hallmarks of cancer.

In the United States, more than 90% of the population has detectable pesticides in their urine and blood.

A recent study did find that those who self-reported the highest frequency of organic food consumption had about a 25% lower risk of getting cancer.

The body of evidence linking pesticide exposure and cancer is said to be so huge that the role pesticides in cancer development can no longer be doubted.