What If Your Next Meal Changed Your Cancer Risk?

Most “anti-cancer diet” advice either turns into fear-based restriction or becomes so vague it’s useless. 

At Ground & Root we take a different path: a clear, balanced, research-informed way to nourish your body so it’s harder for cancer to grow...whether you’re actively in a cancer journey or focused on prevention and staying cancer free.

In today's episode we break down our anti-cancer dietary approach and explain why balance and variety beat rigid restriction for long-term healing. We also share a research-backed grocery list of foods that support detox pathways, blood sugar balance, inflammation control, immune function, and healthy cell signaling.

Here's some of what we're covering:

• The four hallmarks of our dietary approach including nutrient density, macro balancing, system support, and personalization
• Our top anti-cancer foods to prioritize including cruciferous vegetables, alliums, leafy greens, beets, carrots, mushrooms, berries, citrus, spices, and green tea
• What these foods may support including DNA repair, apoptosis, lower inflammation, immune surveillance, and detoxification
• How certain foods and phytonutrients may help suppress cancer stem cells linked with relapse and metastasis
• Plus lifestyle practices that can complement food choices to target cancer stem cells

If you’re ready to make food feel empowering again, hit play, take notes, and build your next grocery list with intention. 

👉 And once you've listened if you decide you'd like more nutrition guidance, here are 3 ways we can support you:

1- Receive a personalized plan inside our coaching program. Schedule a FREE strategy session to learn more

2- Join the self‑paced Enhance Your Plate course

3- Grab the Cancer Diet Cookbook for 100 recipes that put these ideas on your plate (or get it FREE when you join either the course or our coaching program)

As always, if you're enjoying our content, please help us spread the word by sharing, subscribing, & leaving a review. 🙏

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Transcript

Welcome And Monthly Food Theme

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Hello, hello. Welcome back to the Ground and Root Podcast, where we explore the world of holistic and functional strategies to enhance healing and help you stay cancer free. I am your host and holistic cancer dietitian, Dion Detraz. Welcome back. This month, we are in the middle of March at the time of this episode. And this month, our theme is focused around food and diet and how to nourish ourselves in a way that will help us stay cancer free. And as I mentioned previously, although it is certainly not the only piece to the healing puzzle, it is a really important one. And it's a subject we spend a lot of time coaching people on and answering questions about. So it certainly needed its own theme. Of course, this is just the sort of overview of what our ground and root dietary approach is to having an anti-cancer diet, but I will make sure as time goes on, we will dive into a lot of this in more detail because there's just so much here. There's so much goodness here. Okay. Earlier this month, so two episodes ago, I shared the highlights of our approach. Okay. This is how we personally, so me and my family eat, the other coaches at Ground and Root. This is how we eat. This is what we live by. And it is also the principles we teach to all of our clients, to all the members of our community, in our cookbook, in our recipes, like everything we create as it relates to food and diet and nutrition is really anchored in these principles. And rather than a really restricted approach, which many people do follow, we are aiming for balance. We are aiming for diversity and we are aiming to focus on the foods that are going to have the biggest impact on your systems of cancer prevention. Okay. Whether you're still moving through a cancer journey or not, these are the foods that are going to help you the most. So what we're going to do today, in today's episode, I'm going to do just a brief overview of our main principles in case you missed that previous episode. You don't necessarily have to go back and listen unless you want to. And then we're going to focus in on more of the specific foods that have the greatest anti-cancer potential. Okay, so let's dive in. First, the review, the hallmarks, if you will, of the ground and root dietary approach, what we really believe in and teach, what the research supports, what we're here for. So first and foremost, nutrient density to deeply nourish ourselves. This is coming from real whole foods, not processed foods, yeah. Organic whenever possible, colorful variety, a mix of animal and plant foods with a special emphasis on the foods that have the biggest anti-cancer potential. So the foods we're going to be covering today. Number two, Hallmark is macro balancing. And although this is gonna, the ratios of this are gonna look a little bit different for everybody depending on, you know, what your chemistry is telling us, what your genetics and unique needs are in general. We are supportive of a higher protein, lower carb diet with a lot of healthy fats and fiber and gut support foods, right? As well as optimal meal timing, which means when you're eating and also when you're not eating. So we're optimizing our fasting windows as well. And then the third hallmark is system supporting. So that is because we want these foods to have really specific actions in the body to not just nourish us in a deep way, but to also help us bring down inflammation, to balance blood sugar and insulin levels, to support detoxification and to enhance immune function, right? These are our systems of cancer prevention. And these are the things we want to make sure we're really nourishing. Now, the final piece to our approach is ideally personalization. You know, it doesn't mean you're still not gonna get a lot of benefit if you just follow the first three suggestions, but having somebody have their eyes on it is gonna help you be even more specific in what you're aiming for. And this is going to be based on where you are in your healing journey, if there's any cancer-specific pieces to consider. So the type of cancer that you're dealing with or the type of treatment that you're dealing with this tweak, some of the suggestions. And then, of course, what your DNA, what your genetics tell us, and what your lab values are telling us. So all of this allows us to take the general principles and then make them even more specific. So ideally, they're gonna work best for you. I think probably the easiest way to think about this would be around carb amounts, because not everybody needs to restrict carbohydrates. A lot of that has to do with how well you just genetically manage glucose and insulin, right? If you're at risk for insulin resistance or high glucose levels and your chemistry, your blood value, your lab values are higher than we like them to be, then yes, that's going to, that's going to tell us that we need to be more mindful about your carb and starch intake as well as how we're balancing it with the other nutrients, right? Whereas somebody else may not have to. So that's just one example, but that is how we take these recommendations and personalize them. Okay, now let's get into some of those specific foods. I'm gonna break this up into two categories. Again, there's some overlap here, but these are the primary foods that really have the most research behind them. And also just, I would say time tested, right? They've been used for many years. They're not like brand new super foods that we're putting all of our attention on. So we're gonna start with my favorite, my top 10 anti-cancer foods. And like I said, these are the ones that even though all of them are good, okay, I don't want to discount any plants that I don't mention here because it doesn't mean it doesn't have value. These are just the ones that, again, through research, has really shown over and over again their ability to both prevent and target cancer cells. When it comes to cancer in particular, these are just powerhouses. Like we know they're gonna have a positive impact. So we want to have as much as we can, right? So let's go through them. Number one, cruciferous vegetables. All right. Cruciferous vegetables are probably the food that contained the largest variety of phytonutrient compounds that have anti-cancer activity. And when I say cruciferous veggies, in case you don't know what I'm talking about, that is your family of cabbage and broccoli and cauliflower and kale and Brussels sprouts, frugula. Okay, this family is cruciferous veggies. Now, one group of compounds in particular are the glucosinolates. And these break down further into compounds which possess really high anti-cancer activity. I'm just gonna list off some of the things they do just to make you a believer. In case you're not, in case you just don't want to take my word for it, I want to give you some really specific actions of why these foods made my top 10. One of the things cruciferous vegetables has been shown to do is that it can accelerate the body's ability to flush out toxic substances. And as we're gonna talk about more next month, toxins are a really big driver of cancer. So the more we can help the body clear out toxins, the better. Cruciferous veggies help us do that. They also have been shown to trigger apoptosis, which is also known as cell death in cancer cells. They have antibacterial properties too, especially against H. pylori, which can overgrow in the body and has been linked to certain cancers like stomach cancer. Okay. It's also they've also been shown to inhibit tumor blood vessel formation. So another word for this is angiogenesis and tumor cell migration or metastasis. So the compounds in cruciferous veggies can help decrease both of these, can help decrease metastasis and decrease angiogenesis. And for any of you who are worried about estrogen or you're dealing with a hormone-sensitive cancer, um, another great thing about cruciferous veggies is that they reduce estradiol's ability to promote cell growth. So it's reducing the toxic or potential toxic impacts of certain estrogen metabolites, estradiol. All right, number two are alliums, specifically garlic, onion, shallots, leeks, okay, this family, garlic and other alliums, they have the most historical reference to their use in medicine. Like we've been using them, you know, centuries for disease management. In 1858, Louis Pasteur actually first demonstrated garlic's powerful antibacterial activity. So we've known for a very long time that this is a medicinal food. And then the sulfur compounds in alliums are responsible for a lot of their anti-cancer activity. Although they have other things too, like flavonoids and inulin, which can also be very beneficial. What are some of the benefits of garlic and other alliums? They have been shown to block the formation as well as the activation of cancer-causing substances, especially nitrosamines. And those would be formed when you consume nitrites. So in certain foods, or even in like blackened charred foods, we're going to be exposed to some of these cancer-causing compounds. Well, alliums can actually block the activation of those substances. Pretty cool, right? So if you are going to do barbecue on occasion, maybe make sure you're using a marinade that has some garlic and onions and things in it to balance that out, right? Again, it's about balance. Garlic and alliums have also been shown to enhance DNA repair, to prevent cancer cell growth and reduce the spread. So reduce metastasis, like cruciferous vegetables, also inducing cancer cell death at apoptosis, like cruciferous vegetables, fighting off microbial infections, again, supporting detoxification, specifically by boosting glutathione production. Glutathione is a really important antioxidant in the body, and especially as it relates to detox. Again, we'll talk about detox more next month. Stimulates production of natural killer cells. These are really important immune cells. Again, when we think about surveillance, it's going to help stimulate that. It's going to help enhance surveillance and it provides food for your good gut bacteria. So it's also going to support your gut microbiome. Right. I don't know if you, well, it depends on if you listened to my earlier episode or not. But I did talk about how we want to choose foods that are going to act on a lot of different systems in the body. So we're checking off a lot of benefits, even with just one food with garlic as an example. Okay, number three, leafy greens. Now, most of the benefit of leafy greens, especially dark, okay, dark green leafy vegetables, comes from their high content of carotenoids, specifically lutein and zeosanthin, along with a few other flavonoids and some other things. Okay, so here's some of what leafy greens have been shown to do in the body. They can neutralize free radicals, which prevent DNA damage. Okay. This is a big issue when it comes to cancer, because often what is stimulating, like the very, very beginning of a cell becoming cancerous, is DNA damage. So anything we can do to limit DNA damage or enhance DNA repair is going to help us stay cancer free. Leafy greens have also been shown to boost the immune system, specifically when it comes to cancer, to suppress cancer cell growth, to help stimulate cancer cell death at apoptosis again, to lower inflammation in the body, to inhibit angiogenesis. So remember that's the blood vessel formation to fuel tumors so that they can grow and reproduce, also support detoxification, also helps repair DNA, and stimulates production of new cells. So greens are another big powerhouse. Now, here are a couple that you may find surprising, maybe. Beets, beetroot. Now, all beets are a great source of antioxidants, of folate, of carotenoids and flavonoids and other phytonutrients. Okay. Red beets in particular are also very high in one specific phytonutrient that happens to have a lot of anti-cancer activity, which is called betylane. And that gives it its red color. So here's what here's what some of the research tells us about this betylane, this the red beet activity. It can also initiate DNA repair. It can neutralize free radicals to again prevent DNA damage. It can inhibit carcinogen formation. So we were talking about like when we're exposed to certain cancer-causing substances, it can inhibit the activation of those substances. It can increase production of immune cells and enzymes that help us fight off cancer development. It can also lower inflammation. So beets, maybe surprisingly for you, are also checking off a lot of boxes. And another one here, too, maybe is surprising, is carrots. All carrots are a great source of carotenoids, okay, particularly beta-carotene, which is a precursor to vitamin A. Vitamin A is a very important nutrient when it comes to immune function. And I find when I'm checking lab values, a lot of people are lower in vitamin A than ideal. So something to consider. There are also some genetic components there too. Okay, but carrots also contain hundreds of other phytonutrients. So I also really believe in the synergy, right? As opposed to just taking one active ingredient, putting it into a supplement, and then taking it that way. When we eat the real food, we're getting, you know, potential hundreds of benefits because of the synergy of all the different nutrients available. I think that is also very important to say. Some of the things carrots have been shown to do, boost the immune system, activate proteins that inhibit cancer cells, lower inflammation, normalize cell division. So one of the things about cancer cells is that they start reproducing very quickly, like kind of gets out of control reproduction. And uh carrots can actually help normalize that division process. And then protecting cell membranes from damage by toxins. So again, maybe not necessarily, even though I think carrots do have some good liver-supporting actions, even if it's not a direct connection to detox support, it is helping to protect our cells from whatever toxins we might be exposed to. So kind of in an indirect way, it can help with that. All right, next up we have mushrooms. All mushrooms are a really good source of beta-glucan, lectins, and also glycoproteins. Okay, so I would say rather than get super fancy, you can if you want to, but even the button mushrooms, okay, just start with whatever mushrooms you're comfortable with, because having them in your diet is definitely going to benefit you. Ideally, all mushrooms should be cooked. I know I haven't given you much information here around like how to eat them and how to prepare them. Again, that could be more for a deep dive. I just want you to first have the foods to be like put on your grocery list. But I will say for mushrooms, they it is best if they're cooked. But here's a long list of things that they have been shown to do: protecting cells from preradical damage, inhibiting angiogenesis, repairing DNA, stimulating apoptosis, that cancer cell death, boosting the immune system, protecting against metastasis, inhibiting aromatase, which is actually a really helpful one. Again, for any of you who have a hormone-sensitive cancer, you might even be taking an aromatase inhibitor as part of a long-term plan. Mushrooms naturally do that, which is cool. They've been shown to shrink tumors, to reduce side effects of chemotherapy and radiation. This is why we often recommend mushrooms alongside treatment, because they can not only enhance your overall health and vitality, but minimize toxicity and side effects from treatment. They also provide food for your good gut bacteria and one of the only food sources of vitamin D. So that's a bonus as well. Next up, we have berries. This is probably not as surprising to you. I feel like berries get a lot of attention, which is good. Berries are an excellent source of antioxidants. They're also very low glycemic and high fiber. So rare that they end up spiking blood sugar levels. So they can be a safe fruit to bring in, even if you're trying to keep your carbs down. They have a lot of great nutrients in them, allagic acid, flavonoids, anthocyanins, so many really helpful phytonutrients. Here's some of what they've been shown to do: slow cancer growth, like extracts of berry heaven in cell studies shown to slow cancer growth, increase enzymes, which destroy those cancer-causing substances. So again, preventing the activation of cancer-causing substances, suppressing enzymes that damage DNA, stimulating apoptosis, lowering inflammation, boosting the immune system, inhibiting metastasis, inhibiting angiogenesis, even decreasing cancer gene expression while turning on tumor suppressor genes. So it even works in like this epigenetic way, which is super cool. Another fruit that would be a safe one to pull in as well is citrus. That's another one on my list. Citrus fruits are great, are also a great source of antioxidants, but they also have some really great polyphenols, and especially in the peel, terpenes and flavonoids that have been shown to have powerful anti-cancer protection, as well as pectin, a fiber in citrus fruits that have been shown to be really helpful. So some of the benefits of citrus, lower inflammation, deactivating carcinogens, inhibiting aromatase, okay, like mushrooms, protecting DNA from damage, inhibiting cancer cell growth and reproduction. So the metastasis thing again, inhibiting angiogenesis. You're hearing a lot of these repeating, right? Porting detox pathways, and containing antimicrobial properties like garlic and allium have as well. Two more to cover, spices. And I know it's a very broad category, but that's because a lot of spices have been shown, not just turmeric. Okay. Definitely there's a lot of research around turmeric. Curry, if you like those, bring them in. But a lot of this goes beyond turmeric into a lot of different types of spices. So I'm going to encourage you to just start cooking with more spices. You know, start with the ones you like, experiment, try new recipes, see if you can start bringing in more variety of spices. There is an abundance of phytonutrients and antioxidants that are found in spices. And it doesn't take much, like a teaspoon goes a really long way inside your body. Some of what they've been shown to do, fight off infections, protect DNA from damage, boosting the immune system, lowering inflammation, suppressing tumor cell activity on like a lot of different pathways, inhibiting the formation of tumor cells, activating apoptosis. And this is another cool one for treatment support. They've even been shown to sensitize cancer cells to chemotherapy and radiation. So spices can also be a really great adjunct when you're still moving through treatment. And then finally, green tea, of course, has made this list. And this is also probably not a surprising one for you. Green tea contains a lot of really great antioxidants and catechins, the most notable being EGCG. And they also contain flavonoids, L-theanine, other great things too. EGCG gets all the like praise, but there's a lot of good things in green tea. And actually, in next week's episode, I am bringing on a guest where we're going to talk all things tea. It's going to be great. But some of the things that we know green tea can do, it can protect DNA from damage by free radicals, including radiation, which is very important if you're moving through radiation, inhibiting the development of cancer, stimulating enzymes that, again, shut down the activation of cancer-causing substances, decreasing tumor growth, increasing apoptosis, inhibiting metastasis, inhibiting angiogenesis, modulating the immune system, activating detox pathways. So again, it's checking off all the things. And if you don't like green tea, again, try to listen to next week's episode because our guest, Maria, is going to give you a lot of ideas of how to get the benefits of tea from a lot of different ways. But my guess is we could probably find a form of green tea that you like, or you can also mix it with other teas if it's like just really a flavor thing. So there might be other ways you can get it in. Okay, the last thing I want to bring up, and there's some overlap here, but it's something as it relates to cancer stem cells. Okay, so when we think about specific foods or plants in particular that are going to help us target cancer, we also have to think about stem cells. And in case you don't know at all what I'm talking about, stem cancer stem cells are a small like subgroup of cells that are found inside of a tumor. And these are the cells that can self-renew, they can differentiate, they can create new cancer cells. They're like the mother cell. Do you know what I mean? They're like they seed the cancer. And these cells are thought to be responsible for most metastasis and relapses that happen. And that's because unfortunately, they are resistant to our modern treatment methods like chemotherapy and radiation. A theory for that is because typically, I'm not so much like immunotherapy, but chemotherapy, radiation are targeting fast-growing cells, right? Like rapidly dividing daughter cells is what we call them. But that seems to be leaving the slow cycling stem cells untouched. So it's not, even though we don't see a tumor burden anymore, those stem cells have not necessarily been dealt with. So here's the good thing until there's medication, and I'm sure they're working on something, but until there's treatment for cancer stem cells, there are many phytonutrients that. That have been shown to suppress cancer stem cells. Okay. And a lot of them are ones we've already talked about. So I'm just gonna go through this list for you. And I'll make sure to summarize these in the show notes as well because I know it's a lot to remember. So EGCG, right? That catechin found in green tea and matcha tea, that's one. It can also target cancer stem cells. Curcumin, right? That's found in turmeric. Quercetin, that's a flavonoid that's found in apples and peppers and red onions, grapes, capers. Genestine is a compound, a protein found in soy foods. Okay, so soy can organic, whole traditional soy food, can also help target stem cells. Luteolin, that's a phytonutrient found in celery and oregano and thyme. You may have seen even on Instagram, like you may have seen things online about celery juice, right, being really helpful for health. Well, obviously that would be very high in luteolin. And one of the benefits of luteolin is targeting cancer stem cells. Sulforophane, which is from cruciferous veggies and our alliums, if you were just talked about all that. Resveratrol is a certain nutrient found in red grapes and in berries, especially cranberries and also blueberries, and also in cocoa and cacao. Six gingerol is a compound found in both fresh and dried ginger. So that's another one that can target stem cells. Anthocyanins, that like category of flavonoids found in berries and cherries and purple cabbage, that can also target stem cells. Lycopene is an active phytonutrient in red plants, okay, especially in tomatoes, cooked tomatoes in particular, grapefruit, watermelon, okay, papaya. And there are also other practices that can help us target cancer stem cells. So certainly one of the things that we do when we're working with people is not just putting together, you know, an ideal food plan, but also thinking about just lifestyle practices that are going to enhance the action of what we're trying to do. So fasting has also been shown to suppress cancer stem cells. Exercise, sauna, or heat therapy has also been shown. So there's, you know, there's thankfully, there's never just one way that we have to do it. There's a lot of different ways that we can target these pathways and really do everything we can to help ourselves stay healthy. All right, in summary, okay, what are the take-home messages here? First and foremost, balance, variety, right? The basic principles always apply first. And then second would be to choose more of the foods that we discussed today, to make sure these foods are on your grocery list. I wouldn't even worry right now about like how much to be doing. I definitely give those suggestions inside the self-paced course. So if you wanted to learn more, you can get all the details. But for now, I would say just make sure they're on your grocery list. Just make sure that you're buying these foods, that they're getting on your table, right? Like on your plate, in your body, in different forms, sometimes cooked, sometimes raw, right? Like just mix it up. Make sure they're starting to come in. And the final thing I want to say about just following an anti-cancer diet in general is that the 80-20 rule definitely applies here. Okay. I know I've mentioned this before, but I feel like it's worth repeating. You do not need to do something perfectly 100% of the time for it to work. Okay. As long as most of the time, and certainly 80% is most of the time, right? Most of the time, you are fueling your body with all the things it needs to be optimal, to stay healthy, to help you heal and repair. The occasional treat, the occasional dinner out, right? The occasional glass of wine or alcohol is not going to completely disrupt all the good. So please remember that. That is such an important message for me to pass along. If you want more support, please remember you have two options. We do have our coaching program and we can hop on a call and chat about it more before you make any commitment. Okay. There's no obligation. But as I've mentioned previously, step two in our three-part system is focused around this. It's focused around nourishment and changing the terrain, changing the environment and your body to make it harder for cancer to grow. That's what we're trying to do, right? Make it harder. So it can't, it's not easy to survive in your body. And we can help you personalize a plan and make sure you're doing, you're following a food plan that's going to work for you, that's sustainable, but that's also meeting your needs and addressing your unique chemistry, right? And if you're not ready for the full coaching program, no worries at all. We have your back. You can get started with a self-paced online course. You'll find the links in the show notes if you want to learn more about either of those. As I mentioned next week, I have a special guest, Maria Uspensky from the Tea Spot, is going to be joining us. She's going to share about her cancer story, her personal journey with cancer, how that brought her to tea, and really diving into the research around tea. And then all the different ways we can add tea into our days, our routines to really just another way to infuse our bodies with these healing attributes. Thank you so much for joining me for today's episode. I hope you found that interesting and insightful. And I can't wait to hear what's on your next grocery list and all the new foods that you're going to start to experiment with. As always, if you are enjoying the content we're covering here at the Ground and Root Podcast, please help us spread the word. Share, subscribe, leave a review. We always appreciate your support and helping this information get into the ears of as many people as possible. I wish you such a beautiful day. And I look forward to connecting with you again on next week's episode. Bye for now.