17 May 2015
Newsletter #500
Lee Euler, Editor
Lee Euler, Editor
The secret to evading cancer may live in the sea. The cancer-fighting solution I’m going to tell you about today – perhaps the healthiest food in the world – could save your life. Plus, it’s not an exotic, expensive supplement. It’s cheap!
Yet few people know about it. Here’s the story. . .
If your visits to the beach leave you thinking there’s too much seaweed in the ocean … it’s time to reconsider this plant’s awesome but hidden benefits.
Seaweed is a very broad term used to describe many varieties of marine plants and algae. Kelp (one of the largest types of seaweed and well-known among health fanatics) is actually a type of multicellular algae. Like all algae, it feeds itself by photosynthesis, like a plant.
This type of seaweed contains massive amounts of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
It contains Vitamin C, Vitamin E, iodine, other minerals, and fiber. All are powerful, cancer-fighting nutrients. I take a kelp supplement daily.
Mere kelp can help prevent and treat prostate cancer, breast cancer, gastric cancer, and more. It could be your “lifeboat” back to good health.
This stunning Japanese secret is lost on most Americans
The Japanese diet includes more than 21 different types of seaweed. Japanese men and women eat up to 11 grams of seaweed every day.
The seaweed-rich diet makes a significant dent in the cancer rate in Japan. And it could slash your risk, too.
Japanese men have a lower risk of getting prostate cancer (the most common type of cancer for men) than do American men. However, when Japanese men emigrate to the US and start eating a Western diet, they get prostate cancer at the same rate as American men. Of course, I can’t ascribe the entire difference to seaweed, but it probably plays a role.
The same is true for Japanese women. Mostly because seaweed contains so much iodine, Japanese women consume 25 times more iodine than American women. This extra iodine protects Japanese women from getting breast cancer.
In fact, 83 percent fewer Japanese women get breast cancer than American women. From the earliest days of this newsletter, I’ve urged readers to consume more iodine. It’s a particularly powerful tool against breast cancer.
Like the men, when Japanese women settle in the U.S. and start eating a Western diet, they get breast cancer at the same rate as American women.
Do the Japanese know a secret that’s lost on Americans? And if so, why do they stop taking advantage of it when they move to the U.S.? I guess it’s a case of “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” And like most of us, their eating habits are probably dictated more by what they like than by what’s good for them.
Seaweed protects you from cancer
in many different ways
in many different ways
There are thousands of seaweed species. Scientists divide them into three main categories:
1. Brown algae (such as kelp and wracks)
2. Red algae (such as dulse, weeds, and mosses)
3. Green algae (such as sea lettuce, which resembles land-grown lettuce in appearance)
Together they comprise one of the world’s great superfoods… your proverbial lifeboat.
Seaweed prevents cancer tumors from developing and helps maintain blood vessels that keep tumors from growing.
A type of brown seaweed – known as fucoxanthin – makes prostate cancer cells commit suicide.
Another type of seaweed – this one a red algae that grows near the equator in Southeast Asia – shrinks breast tumors more effectively than chemotherapy.
Researchers at the University Putra in Malaysia used rats to test the effectiveness of red seaweed compared to chemotherapy. Chemotherapy shrank breast tumors 71 percent in four weeks. The seaweed shrank breast tumors 91 percent in four weeks.
In addition to working 27 percent better than chemotherapy, red seaweed showed another amazing benefit. While chemotherapy devastated the rats’ kidneys and livers, the seaweed protected those organs.
Seaweed also softens tumors.
Destroys free radicals, ushers out toxins,
boosts immunity
boosts immunity
According to Denmark’s National Food Institute and the Technical University of Denmark, seaweed finds and destroys free radicals in your body.
Certain types of blue-green algae work wonders for your immune system.
Blue-green algae contain a compound known as chlorophyll. Chlorophyll helps purify your blood, detoxify your body, and rejuvenate your organs. Via this cleansing and detoxing mechanism, blue-green algae help prevent cancer and reduce tumor growth.
A specific type of blue-green algae – named spirulina because it looks like a spiral – boosts your immune system and prevents breast cancer cells from growing.
Spirulina is also a useful treatment for allergies, high blood pressure and cholesterol.
Chlorella – a type of green algae – is a “near-perfect food,” according to some doctors.
It binds to toxins and escorts them out of your body, enhancing your immune system. It also kills liver cancer cells.
Sea lettuce – a type of green algae (genus Ulva) — boosts your antioxidant enzymes, according to Dr. Hendrik Luesch from the University of Florida.
These enzymes increase the antioxidants in your cells. Boosted by higher levels of antioxidants, your body wards off damage and inflammation, and protects you from cancer.
Abundant trace minerals bring the gift of health
Brown algae contain all 72 trace minerals that are typically missing from our Western diet.
Besides these minerals, brown algae contain a compound called fucoidan that’s been proven to have significant cancer-fighting ability (see Issue #119).
Fucoidan prevents tumors from growing in at least three ways:
1. It triggers enzymes that kill cancer cells.
2. It changes the membrane of a cancer cell’s mitochondria (the cell’s “power house” or “engine”), causing the cancer cell to die.
3. It prevents cancer cells (especially lung cancer cells) from metastasizing.
Men who eat brown algae enjoy a reduced risk of contracting prostate cancer. Brown algae also help combat breast cancer, diabetes, obesity, chemical overloads, and more.
Boosts your iodine levels
If you’re health-literate you probably know that iodine is essential to thyroid health, but few people know it also offers powerful protection against breast cancer. Most Americans lack this essential mineral, because the practice of iodizing salt and even putting some iodine in bread dough has fallen out of favor.
The official recommended intake of iodine, at 150 micrograms, is absurdly low. A teaspoon of iodized salt is said to contain around 400 micrograms.
Kelp contains more iodine than any other known food. Even better, kelp contains a natural form of iodine that your body easily processes.
Helps neutralize carbohydrates
Eating carbohydrates increases your risk of cancer. Not to mention a host of other inflammatory diseases such as diabetes, dementia and heart disease.
Carbs contain a certain signaling molecule called IGF-1. High IGF-1 levels make cancer resistant to treatment.
When you lower your IGF-1 levels you reduce your risk of getting cancer, slow cancer growth if you’ve already got the disease, and increase your odds of surviving. Eating seaweed (i.e. the different varieties of algae) naturally reduces your IGF-1 levels.
When you eat carbs, your blood sugar increases. Seaweed helps prevents big spikes in your blood sugar levels, improving your insulin sensitivity and reducing your insulin levels.
Don’t take this as a gimmick that allows you to pig out on carbs – the best move is to eat as few carbohydrates as possible. But seaweed can help neutralize an occasional indulgence.
Don’t go overboard with seaweed
Chinese and Japanese healers have used seaweed to treat cancer for centuries. Just be careful not to eat too much.
Seaweed is almost too healthy. Ten grams (about two tablespoons) contains 34 times more potassium than the same amount of banana – and bananas are a potassium-rich food. That much potassium could cause heart palpitations if you have kidney problems.
It’s also possible to overdose on iodine.
To solve this problem, eat small amounts regularly.
Many ways to get some seaweed
Sushi rolls and seaweed salad will give you a weekly seaweed boost. Not a big fan of sushi? Buy seaweed in pill form.
I take Nature’s Way kelp myself, as well as various brands of chlorella or spirulina (depending on what mood I’m in). Just follow the directions on the bottles and you’ll be fine.
If you’d rather not take a pill, buy dried seaweed and add one-fourth teaspoon or more to:
• Smoothies
• Fresh squeezed juice
• Salad dressings (olive oil and vinegar dressings work best)
• Condiments, such as hummus, olive tapenade, or pesto
• Soups and stews (note to moms… your children won’t even notice, especially if you also include a fair amount of garlic!)
Just start small and add more over time!
By including more seaweed in your diet, you can lower your risk of getting cancer.
http://www.cancerdefeated.com/the-oceans-create-what-some-call-the-worlds-healthiest-food-2/3206