Healthy Grocery Foods list (.pdf)
click to print or download
from M D Anderson website.

Before you head out to the grocery store to stock up on holiday foods you might like to print or download this 45 healthy foods shopping list pulled together by Mary Ellen Herndon, wellness food specialist, and other experts at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Evidence for obesity as a promoter of several types of cancer as well as heart disease and diabetes in increasing. Adults can avoid holiday weight gain, Herndon says, by stocking up on the cancer-fighting foods on this holiday food grocery list. Naturally, the list is rich in vegetables and fruits — from acorn squash, berries and dates to pears, quinces, sweet potatoes, Swiss chard and turnips– and in grains, beans, and lean non-red meat protein sources. Also included are  pecans, pistachios, walnuts, and dark chocolate.

“Plant foods are packed with cancer-fighting nutrients,” Herndon says. “So, make sure you fill two-thirds of your plate with vegetables, fruits, whole grains or beans. On the remaining one-third of your plate, choose a lean animal or plant protein.”

Men should aim for meals with no more than 500 calories, she adds, and women aim for no more than 400 calories.

“People tend to gain weight in colder months because they’re indoors more, less active and overeat high calorie, holiday foods,” said Herndon says. “And, unhealthy weight gain, in the long-run, may make it harder for the body to fight off diseases like cancer.”

Currently, NIH factsheet for Obesity and Cancer Risk lists just 8 types of cancer by name: Esophagus · Pancreas · Colon · and rectum · Breast (after menopause) · Endometrium (lining of the uterus) · Kidney · Thyroid · Gallbladder.

So what about prostate cancer? Studies are beginning to demonstrate that obesity is associated with prostate cancer aggressiveness and survival chances.

Prostate enlargement (BPH) is common with aging and obesity.  But even in men who do not develop BPH, Vanderbilt University researchers have found,  there are links between prostate cancer and obesity.

And by examining what happens to fat genes if a thicker than normal layer of fat builds up around the prostate, a team of Canadian, Portuguese and Spanish geneticists and oncologists have discovered one way that obesity promotes aggressive prostate cancer (more to come on this in our MedNews section).

Meanwhile, to make your holiday food shopping list nice, not naughty (except for a bit of dark chocolate), follow Mary Ellen Herndon’s lead and select from these foods:

Mary Ellen Herndon

 Fresh, in-season fruits and vegetables
Acorn squash
Belgian endive
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Butternut squash
Cauliflower
Cranberries
Dates
Garlic
Kale
Leeks
Mushrooms
Pears
Persimmons
Pomegranates
Pumpkin
Quince
Sweet potatoes
Swiss chard
Turnips

Grains
Quinoa
Wild rice
Brown rice
Lentils

Dairy
Skim milk
Non-fat Greek yogurt

Protein
Lean turkey or chicken
Lean fish such as salmon, halibut, redfish or red snapper
Tofu
Almonds
Pistachios
Walnuts
Pecans
Garbanzo beans/chickpeas (low sodium if canned)
Black, red, pinto or white beans  (low sodium if canned)

Frozen foods
Get more nutrients by buying this out-of-season produce frozen.
Berries (preferably organic)
Carrots
Collard greens
Green beans
Rhubarb
Sweet corn

Baking aisle
Cinnamon
Cooking spray
Dark chocolate
Whole wheat flour

Dark chocolate as a remedy for emotional stress receives new support from a clinical trial published online in ACS’ Journal of Proteome Research: Gut Microbiota, and Stress-Related Metabolism in Free-Living Subjects. Men and women who ate just over an ounce and a quarter of dark chocolate a day for two weeks showed reduced levels of stress hormones in their bodies. Dark chocolate consumption also partially corrected other stress-related biochemical imbalances.

Scientists at Oregon State University and Linus Pauling Institute propose in an article published October 7 that sulforaphane, a compound found in cruciferous vegetables notably broccoli, may be useful as a chemopreventive agent for high-risk prostate cancer patients. Sulforaphane, Emily Ho and colleagues write, acts as a histone deacetylase inhibitor on prostate cancer (and colorectal cancer) cells.

Oleocanthal, a naturally-occurring compound found in extra-virgin olive oil, alters the structure of neurotoxic proteins believed to contribute to the debilitating effects of Alzheimer’s disease. This structural change impedes the proteins’ ability to damage brain nerve cells.

“Tainted Meat: The Sickening of Stephanie Smith” in today’s New York Times health section looks at how the meat industry is allowed to police itself while feeding untested meat scraps, or “trim,” into supposedly tested ground beef supplies before selling to the customer.

Unfortunately, the US House of Representatives has already voted to pass a bill that makes it harder for small and organic food producers to compete with the industrial food giants that source some of the worst food-borne illness outbreaks.

Stephanie Smith, a 20 year-old dance instructor, became violently ill after eating a single home-cooked beef hamburger made from tainted beef. Stephanie is now in a wheelchair and may never walk again. How can one meat sandwich do this to a healthy young woman?

On March 23, 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asked Irvington, N.J.-based Westco Fruit and Nut Co., Inc. (Westco/Westcott) to voluntarily recall all of its products containing peanuts from Peanut Company of America (PCA) because of the contamination threat. Incredibly, Westco/Westcott refused. On April 8, 2009, the FDA served Westco/Westcott with an inspection warrant in an attempt to gain access to the company’s distribution records.

On April 27, 2009, at the request of the FDA, U.S. Marshals seized $34,500 worth of PCA peanuts and products containing PCA peanuts at Westco/Westcott because of possible Salmonella contamination. Not long after, PCA went bankrupt and declared it could not afford to warn or reach any of its customers.

This short video looks at the anatomy of a peanut outbreak. It may be of interest to older adults as well as to families with small children aqnd to pet-owners who may handle peanut-contaminated food. It may be especially relevant for people who have reduced immune systems.

ANATOMY OF AN OUTBREAK (wmv file 5:26 — will open as video in Windows Media Player, or save to disk)

LINKS

FDA’s Peanut Products Recall & Investigation

A large, long-term study in the U.K. has found that people who eat fish or who are vegetarians are less likely to develop cancer than people who describe themselves as meat-eaters. Surprisingly, for some types of cancer, risk was lower for those who ate fish than for strict vegetarians.

Led by a team at Oxford University, researchers studied 61,566 British men and women for several years. More than half of the people enrolled or 32,403 identified as meat eaters, 8562 as non-meat eaters who did eat fish (“fish eaters”‘) and 20,601 as vegetarians.

Some of the difference favoring fish consumption over vegetarianism may arise from known benefits of fish oil and some from known or risks from high consumption of dairy foods.

Men with prostate cancer who consumed the active compounds in green tea demonstrated a significant reduction in serum markers predictive of prostate cancer progression, according to results of a study published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Pomegranate

Pomegranate juice may slow the progression of post-treatment prostate cancer recurrence, according to new long-term research results presented at the 104th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA), April 2009.

Researchers found that men who have undergone treatment for localized prostate cancer could benefit from drinking pomegranate juice by seeing a significant slowing of the rate of rising in their PSA (prostate specific antigen).

March 24, 2009 /PHILADELPHIA, AACR / – Omega-3 fatty acids appear protective against advanced prostate cancer, and this effect may be modified by a genetic variant in the COX-2 gene, according to a report in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

“The COX-2 increased risk of disease was essentially reversed by increasing omega-3 fatty acid intake by a half a gram per day,” said John S. Witte, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California San Francisco.

If men want to interpret the results in terms of adding omega-3 rich fish to their regular diet, he said, “the strongest effect was seen from eating dark fish such as salmon one or more times per week.”